Untitled

Summary: In the year 2098, a mysterious machine known as ‘The Dream Carrier’ unravelled proof in reincarnation lives, creating a new world.

Chapter 1

The Dream
Carrier

By

Adam Patterson

Prologue

In
the year 2098, the mystery of death was unravelled. Reincarnation was no longer a belief, but a
fact.

A
team of scientists led by Dr Steven Romonovski had designed and built the
‘Dream Carrier’, a machine based on hypnotic techniques which could awaken the
memories of previous lives, the memories of the soul. Those memories could then be both shown and
experienced in perfect, vivid clarity.

News
of the machine spread throughout the world as the first test subjects began to
remember who they were in explicit detail, some even remembering their
experiences as animals or other living things.

Funded
by the American government, Dr Romonovski’s team were not entitled to the
royalties for the potential sale of their invention. The Dream Carrier was not a machine that
could be easily or cheaply reproduced, requiring scientific engineering to
assemble, together with a skilled hypnotist’s mind to accurately operate and
control it.

Through
the world media the Dream Carrier’s existence became widely known making its
theft something that many other governments of the world did not wish to
attempt. Thus, the United Nations
stepped in and decreed that each member nation be given the plans and
schematics to be able to build their own Dream Carrier. Each nation would then have a chance at being
able to identify those, who in their previous lives were geniuses or great
artists, so that their gifts could be nurtured and over time, potentially
restored to them.

The
legal age for a person to use the Dream Carrier was set at twenty one and once
announced, a waiting list was produced seeing thousands sign up to go through
the Dream Carrier experience.

Even
working twenty four hours a day, the hypnotists that were the Dream Carrier’s
operators could only see to a handful of people each day, so the list stretched
out to perspective years for those already on it, let alone the thousands more
that were estimated to join.

It
was suggested by a government official that those discovered to have committed
the most horrific of crimes, those mass murderers and other sick individuals be
made to literally serve a ‘life sentence’.
From the moment of identification confirmation matched to previous
identity, individuals were taken away. There was no trial as technically any trial
prior to the year 2098 had already taken place, and an individual could not be
tried twice for the same crime. This new
use for the Dream Carrier sparked mass debate concluding in public outrage, as
many people believed that previous incarnations did not reflect whom a person was
now, in the present. The Law accepted
that once pronounced legally dead, a person’s identity ceased to exist, thus
all crimes a person may have been responsible for were removed from the records
of the living, and those known to be murderers in a past life did not need to
go on paying for their crimes.

That
debate then marked the beginning of mass opposition amongst the general public
against the use of the Dream Carrier.

Weeks
into the Dream Carrier project, a Bill was put forward suggesting that one be
allowed to write a will leaving all one’s possessions to one’s future
self. Then using the Dream Carrier and
upon verification through means outlined before death, a person could
immediately reclaim their estate, which would allow the rich to forever keep
their wealth. The Bill was passed. This in turn led to the banks of the world
demanding that people who died owing excessive amounts also carry those debts
forward into their next life.

These
Bills were the last outrage and with them factions rose. Both public and political protests for the
Dream Carrier’s withdrawal and decommission began.

Religious
groups whose beliefs do not include re-incarnation moved forward once more and
gained much support as they too demanded use of the Dream Carrier to be
abolished.

The
governments of the world were powerful and many of them deceptive. Seeing that public use of the Dream Carrier
and any future Dream Carriers built would only lead to further problems and
complications, the world media were controlled to direct the public to believe
the Dream Carrier’s ‘inaccuracy’ and how all the stories of its success had
been a fraud. Reports were made and
documentaries aired throughout the world that in fact, the Dream Carrier was
nothing more than its name suggested – that it simply carried dreams from the
user subconscious to the front of their mind.

This
set off conspiracy theorists on a global scale, but no individual could stand
against the decree from the United Nations and so those few unconvinced minds were
labelled as cynics, and ignored by the masses.

The
Bill allowing one to leave possessions to one’s self was removed on the grounds
of the Dream Carrier’s inaccuracy, as too were the banks’ Bill of debt
recovery.

Soon,
with the guidance of the ‘powers that be’ and the information issued by the
controlled media, the general public had
forgotten about the Dream Carrier and its inventor, Dr Steven Romonovski, whom
himself disappeared.

The
American government passed control of the project and security for its Dream
Carrier, the only completed model in the world, over to a special branch of the
Central Intelligence Agency. This
division was then charged to make sure that no one ever believed that the Dream
Carrier worked, and that anyone choosing to investigate the Dream Carrier
phenomenon did not get very far.

But
the people that had used the Dream Carrier had not forgotten their experiences,
nor had the governments of the world forgotten about these useful machines, the
plans for which all officials still possessed.
Some blueprints even found their way onto the black market, for sale to
the highest bidders.

There
were people, those who were test subjects for the Dream Carrier in particular, that
could not forget what the Dream Carrier made them remember. Lovers torn apart by death or families
separated too soon were left searching for each other. Of all these people the ones that were wanted
the most were the few that received the bulk of the blame in the Dream
Carrier’s fraud; the hypnotists. The
operators that used the Dream Carrier, the ones that saw every memory recalled
through machine operation multiple times.
These few hypnotists were the ones that knew with no doubts that the
Dream Carrier was never a failure, the fraud that it was made out to be. And in the eyes of those with power, these
few were the biggest threat.

Those
that knew what they should not, the ones that know secrets that should remain
secrets, were hunted by the Central Intelligence Agency special division,
wanting to ensure their silence…

Chapter One – June
2nd 2063, 13:30

1

Hans
Bronkoff has spent the last twenty years working on his project. Originally commissioned by Sigfrid Webber in 2043
to build his machine, Hans had recruited the best scientists in all of Germany
to help him and work had begun. Webber,
having been a student of the occult, had read a text describing the
possibilities of regression into a previous life. Theoretically a machine could be built
enabling this, meaning that all the greatest soldiers and generals in history
could possibly be found and made to remember who they were. With these additions to his planned potential
armies, victory was sure to come.

The
plans and strategies that Sigfrid Webber dreamed of grew bigger and bigger, his
desired destiny motivating him into dangerous environments. But schemes were not hidden nor carried out,
and instead were confidently boasted amongst associates and advocates, costing
Webber both failure and his life.

Two
years later in 2045 plans financially ended and the project was suspended, but
Hans had already made great progress.
The project was not something that required soldiers to make it of any
use, so Hans begun searching for an alternate source of funding, taking the
notes of his progress on travels to search for potential funding. His search took him through parts of Asia
until finally in 2046 he returned to Europe and to an Italian benefactor. Impressed by the research carried out so far,
the Italian agreed to fund the project.

The
project once more had financial backing and Hans recruited a new team of
scientists to help him.

These
scientists and others came and went over the years as progress and failure were
met in equal measures, until finally in June of 2063, Hans and his current team
succeeded and construction was complete.

2

Edward
Blain walked briskly down the dank corridor, John Jones at his side. Together the two bodyguards were keeping pace
a step behind their employer, one Roberto Leóni. Leóni was a man in his late forties and had
been accustomed to a comfortable life for many years. Though his wife had departed several years
ago, he also had a son, one currently attending an overseas scholarship.

Seventeen
years ago, Hans Bronkoff had come to him with plans and research showing a
machine that could take a person into a previous life. Roberto, having a great amount of wealth and
looking for a positive investment had agreed to fund this project.

The
years passed and during that time Roberto’s patients stretched thin. Although his slowly increasing bank balance
had remained steady, Roberto’s list of enemies had also grown rapidly. Now Roberto always had two hired bodyguards
with him at all times, both armed men.

As
the trio walked down the polished corridor to the lab situated beneath
Roberto’s mansion estate, Roberto’s excitement could be felt. Hans had promised him that the machine would
work this time and now was the time to prove it.

John
stepped forward and his dark suited arm opened the door to the lab for Mr
Leóni, who entered followed by John and then the equally darkly dressed Edward,
whom closed the large steel door behind him.

The
lab was a large room, but far from spacious.
Around the outside of the room were worktops covered with all manner of
scientific devices and calculation sheets.
The walls were covered in whiteboards with felt markings that seemed to
be in a language of numbers and paper notes with valuable data tacked to these
in almost random places.

In
the centre of the room was a large machine almost three meters in height, two
meters across and with a reclining seat built into the front that had an
operation terminal connected to the side of it.
There was a viewing screen just above the reclined seat so that the
controller could watch both the user and the screen at the same time.

To
the left of the machine stood three of the scientists that had been working on
the machine. They were talking nervously
to themselves in low voices and eyeing Leóni’s bodyguards with worried nervous
glances, or more precisely the bulges of their shoulder holsters beneath their
jackets.

In
the far corner of the room was a forth, rather young scientist who seemed to be
copying down notes from a large old book into his own tattered notebook.

Hans
then stepped out from behind the machine wearing a huge smile on his aging
face.

“Zat
is vhat ve vill now see, Mr Leóni.” Hans
had a naturally patronising way of talking, but Roberto had never picked up on
this as an insult to his own intelligence and ignoring the tone as usual, he
walked to the reclined chair.

“I
sit here?”

“Ya. Unt Jacob vill stand zer next to you and
operate ze machine. Jacob, are you
ready?”

One
of the scientists from the conferring group scurried forwards and nodded. Taking his place at the control terminal he
attached wires via suction cups to his forehead and temples and then picked up
a second set of wires and looked to Mr Leóni.

Roberto
Leóni looked at the wires connected to the ominous looking machine and then
looked to Hans.

“Oh,
come now Mr Leóni. Zis is perfectly
safe, I assure you. You vill be on a
time lock of only five minutes. Vhat can
happen in five minutes of your last life that can be zat bad?”

“Huh,
a lot can happen in five minutes, Doc,” Leóni grunted, “but, I’ve put a lot a
money into this and expect returns, so, here goes.” Leóni unbuttoned his smart suit jacket, sat
down as he spoke and then without looking at Jacob he directed, “Hook me up, son.”

Attaching
the suction cups to Roberto’s temples and forehead, Jacob flicked a switch on
the machine and gears could be heard clicking into motion. The screen above Roberto flickered into life
and then Jacob spoke in a commanding, yet soothing voice that did not match his
appearance.

“You’ll
go to sleep now, Mr Leóni. You’ll go to
sleep for five minutes and when you close your eyes, you’ll see yourself in
your past life. You’ll sleep when I
count to three and when you sleep, the eyes of your former self will open and
the memories of your former self will become clear to you. When you close your eyes, you’ll be asleep
for exactly five minutes. After those five minutes, your eyes will
open and you’ll be back here with me, where you are now. And you’ll remember everything. One.”
The screen flickered as Jacob’s powerful will and focused voice edged
Roberto into the hypnotic trance required in using Hans’ machine.

“Two.” The gears in the machine could be heard
picking up speed, humming softly.

Leóni
sighed in his chair, his eyes closed and a deep sleep consuming him.

“Three.” The screen came to life and Jacob adjusted
some contrast controls to clear the picture into perfect clarity.

3

Joe
Cabana opened his eyes and looked down at himself. There was a pilot stick in his gloved hands
and something on his face slightly obscuring his vision. The wind was powerfully deafening.

The
wings stretched out to each side of him and the bright blue sky was
beautiful. Joe felt exhilarated as he
looked about at the big open space around him.
In the cockpit of a bi-plane, piloting it through the empty cloudless
skies, the feeling of freedom was like nothing he had ever felt before. Suddenly a loud bang exploded off to his
side. Looking about from his open air
cockpit, Joe spotted the cause. On the
ground below him was a large cannon pointing up at his little plane.

A
hand tapped Joe on the shoulder and made him jump more than the explosion
had. Looking around Joe saw the goggled
face of his co-pilot, circling with his hand and then pointing downwards.

Understanding
that this meant circle back and dive, Joe felt himself nodding and then his
hands moved without Roberto controlling them.
The bi-plane banked hard and circled about back towards the cannon that
had shot at them.

Behind
him, Joe’s bomber readied the payload that he would drop over the side of the
plane. The little craft swooped in lower
gaining in speed and roaring towards the cannon.

In
response a second shell exploded just behind where the plane had been only a
heartbeat before. Diving straight at the
cannon Joe aimed his plane dead on target, swooping up and away only meters
from the ground. Behind them came a
mighty explosion as the bomb hit its target.
The shells that the cannon had been firing exploded taking the gunnery
crew with them. The bi-plane shot away
from the cloud of debris and Joe’s co-pilot tapped him on the shoulder once
again. Turning Joe saw the thumbs up
sign from his comrade and returned it in equal enthusiasm.

“Now
onto the next mission objective,” Joe heard in his mind.

4

Abruptly,
Roberto opened his eyes. The elation on
his face was still present as he sat upright.
“That was amazing! It was like a
dream, but it was so real!”

“Ya,
ve saw everything! Zis is
vonderful. Jacob, did you manage to find
out who Mr Leóni vas?”

Jacob
nodded to Hans, wobbling the suction cups still stuck to his head. “Yes Sir.
He was a pilot in the first world war called Joseph Cabana. At the stage of previous life that Mr Leóni
homed in on, he was on a mission to knock out cannons in enemy territory. He was aged thirty at that time and was
married with two children called Louis and Esther.”

“Excellent. So vhile Mr Leóni experienced a part of his
life and knew who he vas, you vere able to search his mind and confirm his most
prominent thoughts of ze time. Zis is ze
exact results I had predicted and hoped for!”

Ripping
the suction cups from his head Roberto sprang out of the chair. “That was amazing! Well done Doc, this thing is gonna make you
famous and make me the richest man on the planet!”

“Ya,
ze scientific discovery of ze century is mine!”

“Got
some questions though,” Roberto raised as he looked from Hans to Jacob and
back. “Why did I have a dream of
something older than a hundred years?
What was that – ‘bout a hundred, hundred and twenty five?”

In
answer Jacob replied with a shrug. “Your
previous life. A previous life. We cannot
control the time.” Jacob’s vague,
shrugging tone was accepted by Hans, while Mr Leóni pushed for no further on his
first question.

Roberto
continued, “How come I couldn’t control myself though, Doc?”

“Mr
Leóni, you vere only remembering ze past.
Alzough it may have felt real, it was no more changeable zan any ozer
memory you have.”

“Okay,
now I understand. Hey Ed, John, get over
here – you gotta try this!”

The
bodyguards looked at each other and then Edward quickly stepped forwards. Eager to see for himself if the machine
worked he sat down and allowed Jacob to repeat the preparation process with
him.

While
he watched Roberto asked, “So Hans, you say Jacob is a hypnotist and without
him to send me under and keep an eye on my mind…”

Picking
up that Leóni wanted the process clarified Hans continued the trailed off
sentence. “Your mind vould be like a
vhirlvind of chaos. You vould not be
able to see any vun instance clearly and could become lost in your past. Ve may not even be able to snap you out of ze
trance. Jacob controls ze whole experience
by searching your deepest memories vhile you enjoy vun specific moment of your
last life. Different moments can be
experienced by using der machine multiple times, but zer ist no vay to predict
vhat zat moment vill be ontil you are under.
Without a hypnotist operator, ze machine vould be useless, as all ze
machine does is enhance a hypnotic technique called ‘regression’.”

Jacob
recited his hypnotic speech to Edward and the screen once again began to
flicker.

“Three,”
counted Jacob.

Hans
leaned in closer to Roberto and whispered so as not to interrupt Jacob’s count.
“Now ve vill vatch as ze machine puts
your man into ze sleep zat Jacob is inducing.
It vould not be practical to make ze subjects practice in hypnotic
sessions before using ze machine, so I have added a little something to the
process to make sleep come at Jacob’s mere suggestion of it.”

“That
was good thinking, Doc – I wish I could go to sleep in three seconds all the
time!”

Hans
politely laughed at the joking comment.
The screen came to life and Jacob fine-tuned the picture for a second
time. The group of scientists, John,
Hans and Roberto watched as the screen showed them what Edward was seeing from
the perspective that he saw it from.

5

Lucas
stood staring down a dark stranger. He
felt afraid, but determined at the same time.
In all his twenty two years he’d had plenty of fights, but only a few
with guns. The dusty street was deserted
and even the horses tied outside the saloon stood like statues. Twilight was just setting in and the two men
could only see each other’s outlines.

“Um
telling you one more time Lucas; stay the hell away from ma’ woman!” The speaker was a rough, older man seen as a
bully throughout the small town they were in.
His gruff voice was meant to intimidate and match his appearance, but
Lucas was no coward.

“She
ain’t your woman no more!” Lucas heard himself retort in a brave voice to the
man whom he now remembered like a dream, everything so familiar until it was
knowledge, not memory. “She’s comin’
back with me and don’t you try to follow us, Cleet!”

There
was a tense moment of silence broken only by the wind as it blew a dust cloud
between the two gunfighters.

“Nah,
that ain’t how it’s happening,” replied Cleet with a menacing tone and in the
blink of an eye he’d drawn his gun.

Lucas
felt his hand move faster than he thought it could, felt the smooth handle in
his palm and aimed with the solid confidence of youth.

Two
shots rang out almost as one, but only one bullet hit its mark.

Cleet
fell to the dirt, blood trickling from the hole in his chest.

Spinning
the gun in his hand and slotting it back into its holster, Lucas turned and
walked towards the saloon.

People
came out from the hiding places that they had watched the fight from. Some greeted Lucas warmly, happy that Cleet
was no more, while others looked on with anger in their eyes. But then the one that mattered the most came
running through them all and into Lucas’s arms.

“Oh
Lucas, I was so scared, I thought you was gonna get killed!”

“Don’t
worry, Suzy. Ain’t nothing ever gonna
pull us apart.”

6

Edward
opened his eyes. At first he didn’t
move, still in shock over how real the experience had been, a longing to be
with ‘Suzy’ fading from his mind. At the
edge of his senses he heard the cheering of Leóni at seeing the western
movie-like memory that had been displayed on the screen. He heard Jacob’s description of whom he’d
been and what had happened. Then the
realisation of what he needed to do set in.
He remembered why he was here in Roberto Leóni’s mansion and all he had
endured during the past eight months.
The crimes he had committed to convince Leóni of his loyalty and now it
was time to break his cover.

Pulling
the wires from his head he sat up with a blank expression on his face.

“Eddie?”
asked Roberto. “You okay?”

In
one smooth motion Edward Blain had his gun in his hand and was standing with
his back to the machine covering the crowd before him. “Jacob, get over there with the others.”

Alarmed,
Jacob disconnected himself and quickly obeyed the bodyguard.

“What
in hell is going on here!” demanded Leóni.

Ignoring
the question, Edward kept the group covered with his gun and moved off to the
side of the room. He picked up the
laptop wirelessly connected to the machine, and then hurtled it downwards,
smashing and destroying the device used to record its use.

“No! Vat are you doing?!” called out Hans.

Edward’s
gun rose in response. Edward then
sidestepped a little further and reached for the manual containing all the
printed final data that had been on the machine itself, all the information of
successful results from the past seventeen years that Hans had spent working on
his machine. Within the manual pages
were the plans for the machine, the raw blue prints for its construction. The manual, as much as the machine itself,
represented Bronkoff’s life. There was
no other hard-drive or laptop with the files for the simple reason that Dr
Bronkoff did not wish multiple machine storage for his research in case it was
hacked or stolen by an online thief.
Everything aside from his old laptop was simply written by pen, and kept
in that personal book.

“Vhat
are you going to do vith zat!” Hans asked quickly, taking a step forward.

Inclining
his head in warning and aiming directly at Bronkoff, Edward stopped the
scientist in his tracks.

“I’m
leaving and this is coming with me,” stated Blain as he held up the book. “An invention like this doesn’t belong in the
hands of a criminal like you, Leóni and now that I’ve destroyed the laptop, this
book and the machine,” said Blain as he held up the notebook, “we’ll see that a
new machine is put into the right hands.”

“He’s
a government man,” sneered the other guard,
John. “I know an agent when I see
one!”

“You’re
not walking out of here you filthy traitor!” Leóni stated.

“Oh
yes I am Leóni, now all of you, back up!
Over there against the wall!”

As
the group tentatively obeyed, a lab coat caught on a bulky electronic scales,
dragged it to the floor. The loud crash
distracted Edward causing him to look to the source, and in that split second
his eyes were distracted, and he lost control of the situation.

John
whipped out his own gun and fired a shot off that sent a bullet passed Blain’s
shoulder.

Leóni
grabbed the closest scientist and used him as a human shield while he took a
step towards his traitorous bodyguard.

Jacob
and another scientist dived to the floor while the young scientist darted for
the door to the room.

As
the first shot rang out Hans screamed and rushed towards his machine, trying to
protect it. This proved to be the last
thing he would ever do as his path took him into John’s line of fire. Firing again, agent Edward was saved from
John’s shot by Hans as he rushed to protect his life’s work. The bullet caught Hans in his back right
behind his heart, killing him almost instantly and sending his body crashing
into the control station of his machine.

From
within the control station something popped and a thin trail of smoke issued
forth from the switch housings.

Agent
Edward dived behind the machine for cover, but in doing this he let bodyguard John
and Leóni cut him off from the room’s only exit.

The
door to the room was now open and the young scientist had escaped the gun
battle, running away down the corridor.

John
sidestepped around the smoking machine to the opposite side of the advancing
Leóni and fired again, but again he missed, his shot opening a hole in the
machine that started a sizzling sound from deep within it and a second, thicker
plume of smoke.

In
answer, Edward fired a clean shot into John’s chest, spinning him into the
machine and knocking him out of this fight.

By
now, Leóni and his human shield had reached their opponent Edward from the
other side of the machine and Leóni threw the scientist aside. Scattering things off a workbench, the
scientist fell to the floor and began crawling towards his comrades.

Leóni
dived at agent Edward and grabbed his gun hand, smashing it into the back of
the machine. An accidental shot was
fired into the top of the device, making it buzz angrily in response.

Chaos
filled the room as a crackling noise now emanated from the machine, ignored by
those fighting for it.

Leóni
punched Edward in the stomach as hard as he could, then again and then shoulder
barged into his enemy, knocking Blain against the machine with a thump.

Smoke
from the machine began to fill the air with a foul stench and the terrified
scientists got to their feet and ran through the open door. Moments later a fire alarm sounded, triggered
by one of the fleeing scientists to warn the other staff working in the house
above.

Edward
head-butted Leóni and then kicked the other man away into the nearest workbench.

Leóni
hit the bench off balance and then trying to stop himself from falling, he held
onto the loaded table. But the man’s
weight was more than that of the delicate instruments on the bench and Roberto
pulled the table over and down on top of him.

Standing
over Leóni, Edward Blain aimed his gun down, preparing to shoot this criminal
for his past acts in his exposed head. A
moment of hesitation in Edward occurred as he thought about the act he was so
close to committing. Catching himself
before the deadly moment, Edward refused to murder in cold blood, to become
like the man now laying before him.
Letting out a deep breath, Edward lowered his gun and turned away from
the prone figure, but as he turned the rear of the machine exploded lifting
Edward from his feet and throwing him into the wall. Edward fell through the work table he landed
on. Pain convulsed his body as he
realised his ribs were broken, hurt by the instruments and table he had
crushed. Edward tried to move, tried to
roll over and as he did the pain almost made him blackout. Through wincing eyes, Edward saw a figure now
standing above him, aiming his own gun down at him.

“You
destroyed my machine. You were going to
steal the plans so I couldn’t have more built and now in the machine’s
explosion, they’re gone too. You‘ve
stolen potential millions from me with these acts. But most importantly of all, you betrayed
me.”

Leóni
fired one shot down into Edward’s skull, murdering him. Edward’s vacant eyes stared lifelessly at the
book containing all Bronkoff’s notes as it burned in the fire now raging behind
Leóni and consuming everything Bronkoff had worked upon. The notes and the laptop Edward had destroyed
along with the machine itself had all been destroyed.

Singed
and battered, Roberto Leóni made his way from the laboratory, staggering away
to the staircase that led him back up to his mansion. Above, Jacob and two of the scientists waited
and upon seeing Leóni emerge from the basement stairwell, they helped him to a
chair.

Roberto,
gun still in hand, sat and listened as the alarm siren rang in the background
of his attention.

Jacob
called the Fire Department and the other two scientists spoke anxiously about
what they should do. Agreeing on a
course of action, they advanced and one gently took the gun from Roberto’s
hand. Leaving it behind them on the
floor, the two scientists carried Roberto out onto his front lawn. As soon as they emerged from the house,
members of the house staff that had already fled at the sound of the fire
alarm, ran to their aid and Leóni was carried further back to safety.

One
of the nervous scientists regarding Mr Leóni suggested, “We should leave. He’ll be alright, he’s just a bit beat
up. Besides they’ll take care of him.”

Looking
just as nervous his friend answered. “You’re
right. We can’t speak to the
police. They’ll want to know more about
all this and I don’t want to go to prison for being involved in anything
connected to Roberto Leóni, at least not now.”

Jacob
had finished the call and joined his colleagues outside. He stood looking at the almost unconscious
Roberto as he was laid on the grass opposite them.

“Jacob,
we’re going. We’re not waiting for the
police or anyone, if we do there’ll be questions about all this, questions that
could get us into a lot of trouble if they find out everything, about where
this project came from and who started it.”

“I
saw him run out of the lab at the beginning of the fight, we don’t know where
he is. No one out here has seen
him.”

Jacob
looked thoughtful for a moment, then the three lab coats were left in a heap on
the ground and Jacob and his friends were gone.

7

Thirty
four years later in 2097, Dr Steven Romonovski sat upon his own financial
depletion, in front of the two representatives for the American
government. They had agreed to meet with
him about his plans for a new machine and possible funding for the research and
construction of that machine.

“Gentlemen,”
began Romonovski as he slid a file forwards across the meeting table. The file contained the pages from the old
note book he had secretly had back in Hans Bronkoff’s lab. In this notebook, Steven had copied down
everything he thought important from the research that had been carried out by
Bronkoff and the others before Steven had joined them. The notes were not an exact copy of
Bronkoff’s own sacred book, but did contain enough information for Steven to
start and complete his own project.
Looking into the eyes of the representatives, Dr Romonovski said
confidently, “allow me to present to you my theories for a machine I have
designed, a machine I like to refer to as, the Dream Carrier.”

Chapter Two – August 14th 2099, 20:15

1

A
man in his mid-thirties sat in a modest little house, a cold beer in one hand
as he used the other to turn the pages of an old file on his lap. The room, dimly lit by a tall lamp in the
corner and the light of the television showed a film the man was not really
watching. The man; Carl Blain. The file contains the snippets of information
he has gathered over the years about the mysterious death of his father, Edward
Blain.

Carl
has been working for the government for many years now. In his early twenties, he had excelled in the
field of military intelligence and after he had been reassigned to his current
role working for the Central Intelligence Agency, he demonstrated great skills
in all the missions he undertook.
Whether he himself was in the field or if he was advising a team as
their tactical leader, Carl had always managed to get the job done over the
years and keep everyone alive... Well, non-targets
meant to be alive at the end of each mission.

Now
in his mid-thirties, Carl preferred the easier assignments and to let the
younger, more enthusiastic agents do all the running around in determined
efforts to prove themselves.

A
year ago Carl had been assigned to guard the prototype version of the Dream
Carrier and to oversee its protection.
He had been fully briefed at the time by those in charge about what the
machine was and what it was expected to do, and had taken careful precautions
to guarantee its safety.

When
the first demonstration had been given to the representatives of the United
Nations, Carl had been there too. Carl
Blain knew that all the information now being fed to the general public by the
media was all just propaganda, meant to disgrace Dr S. Romonovski, and prove
him and his machine a fraud. The
authorities needed the public to believe the Dream Carrier did not work, needed
them all to forget about Romonovski’s invention, and then, away from the public
eye, the machine could be used with a great measure of freedom when and how its
potential new owners chose.

But
Carl could not be fooled, for with his own eyes Carl had seen the machine at
work. Carl, as part of his assignment,
saw the Dream Carrier active and witnessed Romonovski’s success through it. Some test subjects, randomly chosen, revealed
a previous life with enough activity to confirm that their dream could be
proved to have happened, via historical CCTV footage of a confirmed date and
time in a recognised city.

Even
the most sceptic representatives present could not deny the success. However, the acknowledged success of the
Dream Carrier was retracted, withdrawn by all those with power, and claimed a
fraud.

And
the transfer move with the project when it was officially shutdown simply
re-enforced Carl’s belief, resulting in his refusal to accept his transfer.

The
fact he had been suspended from the CIA because of this ate away at him as he
took another swig of his beer. Like all
the others who had been assigned to work under him guarding the Dream Carrier, all
had been suspended with pay, but given no reason for dismissal, just ordered
not to try and leave the city.

Carl
sat with his personal file he had been building for years on his lap. The whole reason he had joined the military
and then quickly accepted a transfer to the CIA was to honour the memory of his
father, Edward Blain, a former agent himself.

Carl
had never met his father; Dad had been killed while Carl’s mother was pregnant
with him. Although his mother had never
been told the truth, the shady death of his father was one of the first things
that Carl discreetly found out about upon his arrival in the Agency. A file had shown that Carl’s father had been
presumed killed in action, that he had never returned from an assignment and
his body never found. His father’s
record had showed that he was too good an agent to have been killed in a shootout. His guard was never down and his skills at
escaping danger had been proven many times.
Yet is was these two points that left Carl’s mind in question regarding
his father disappearance.

The
way his mother had talked about her husband before she too had died, left no
doubt in Carl’s mind of the love shared between his parents, making Carl
believe his father would never have willingly left her.

This
left only one other possibility and in his mind Carl knew it to be true. His father had been murdered.

Over
the years Carl had used the Agency’s databases to try and learn what his
father’s last assignment had been. Carl
had discovered that his father had been protecting someone, although against
what and why was still a mystery. The
assignment, an undercover case, had for some reason been labelled ‘Top Secret’
and stored away in a restricted part of the database. Obsessed with finding this killer, Carl had
now reached several conclusions, the most prominent of which was that he needed
to learn the identity of the person his father had once protected. That one name could well lead him in the
right direction to being able to answer all his questions once and for
all.

Carl
closed the file and put it on the table in front of him. Turning up the volume on his television Carl
listened to the news. An attractive
reporter was telling the viewers about the building behind her.

“…and
all hypnotists used to operate the fraudulent Dream Carrier were separately summoned
here for a full debriefing, today being the last day that…”

‘Debriefings’ Carl thought to himself
with a smile. He recognised the building
behind the reporter, having been there once for a job interview and several
times after that to sort out issues with the part of the Agency that owned that
building.

After
the Dream Carrier had been declared a fake, responsibility for the machine had
been passed to a special division of the CIA, a branch that was commonly
referred to as ‘Black Ops’ by those that worked in the Agency. This shady part of the Agency tended to
handle things that needed to be dealt with in a more severe, yet discreet way,
with none of their missions ever appearing to be recorded in anywhere but the
most classified of databases. Carl
remembered the interview they had given him a few years ago, with the strange
questions in the test. Questions like
‘If you were forced to execute one family member, would it be your mother,
father or a sibling?’

Carl
had not liked those questions and failed the test through not answering
them. But stories he had heard through
the years had led him to believe that his answers had been a good thing, and
that ‘keeping himself honest’ as he had told his friends was far better for him
than a job working in Black Ops, itself little more than being a government
assassin. That had been one of the main
reasons he had refused the transfer with the Dream Carrier project into the
Black Ops division. The fact that this
division had been passed the project was itself strange, but Carl assumed the
reason for this was so that the Black Ops guys could bury the project among all
their other assignments that ‘didn’t exist’ and where the public would never
hear from it again.

Still
looking at the plain building on the screen Carl thought to himself, ‘More likely to take those operators, lock
them up and throw away the key than debrief them. They know enough to screw up everything’.

In
the distance Carl could hear the ringing of his mobile phone. He had left it upstairs again and could not
be bothered to run and get to it now before it stopped. The cell phone rang a few more times and then
stopped.

As
Carl lifted his bottle of beer to his lips preparing to finish the last of it,
his home phone rang. Looking at the
ringing phone through the corner of his eye Carl wondered whether to ignore that
also. Sighing, he put down the almost
empty bottle and walked over to the phone.

“Hello?”

“They’re
coming, get-” The line had gone
dead.

“Hello?!”
called Carl and in the same second the television went quiet and the lamp went
off. The phone line and power to his
house had been cut. From where he was
Carl could see out of the window to the houses across the street, all of which
still had lights on in their windows.

There
was a moment’s silence and then Carl heard the gentle click of his front door
being opened without force.

2

The
Black Ops agent that had picked the lock to Carl Blain’s house signalled over
his shoulder and his three teammates quickly moved passed him and into the
house. The remaining agent turned his
back to the now open doorway and stood looking out into the quiet street. All seemed peaceful and not a soul was there
to look back at him or to wonder what he was holding beneath his suit
jacket.

As
the three agents stalked forwards into the house, one immediately took to the
stairs holding his pistol in one hand and pulling himself up two steps at a
time gripping the banister with the other.

The
two remaining agents crept forwards into the darkness. The leading agent took a hand away from his
night vision glasses and pointed his comrade off into the kitchen, while he
sidestepped quickly into the living room.
Looking about the cluttered room the agent noticed a file on the small
table and then heard a brief ‘swooshing’ noise before he passed out.

3

Carl
quickly dropped his beer bottle into his armchair and then caught the agent’s
body before it could fall and make any noise.
Carl gently laid the unconscious body on one side of the door so that it
would be hidden from anyone outside the room.
Removing the man’s night vision glasses and relieving him of his
sidearm, Carl checked the safety of the weapon and then positioned himself on
the opposite side of the room to the body, now wearing the glasses
himself. Carl quickly searched the man’s
suit pockets but found nothing before the agent that had searched the kitchen entered
the living room to investigate the suspicious sound he’d heard. As Carl had planned, the man’s initial
reaction was to look straight at the body beside the doorway and no sooner was
his head turned by distraction, than Carl had struck again. Using the butt of the pistol, Carl hammered the
man into unconsciousness. Moments later
Carl was armed with a second gun and was slowly creeping into his hallway.

Another
man’s shadow could be seen just outside the half open front door. There was no way for Carl to open the door
without being noticed by the figure on the other side. Hearing a creak from above him, Carl realised
that yet another intruder was searching the upstairs of his house. Like a cat hunting its prey, Carl silently
ascended his staircase, both guns raised and ready to defend himself. He leaned around the corner at the top of the
stairs and his glasses showed him a figure moving around in his bedroom. Rolling from where he was into the room
opposite, Carl ended the roll aiming at the intruder’s shins exposed on the
other side of his bed. Shooting his
silenced gun through the gap under his bed, Carl managed to drop the agent to
his knees. The man gave a cry as he fell
and during the distraction Carl sprang up and onto his bed and as he landed he
clubbed the intruding man to the ground with the handle of the gun. The body fell with a loud thump and together
with the man’s cry, Blain knew that the forth invader outside would be on his
way up the stairs at that very moment.
As Carl turned on the bed back towards the door he raised his left arm
in time to meet the fourth threat. For a
heartbeat the two men hesitated, Carl with a clean shot aimed at the man’s exposed
forehead, the last trespasser motionless as he realised he was caught off
guard, his own gun still pointing at the floor by his side. He had not expected the sound of the falling
body to be anyone other than Carl, whom himself stood up from the bed and put
one of his guns to the man’s temple.

“Drop
it,” ordered Carl.

The
man’s gun clunked to the floor. Keeping
his voice low and threatening, Carl questioned, “Who are you?”

The
man looked at Carl but said nothing.
Snatching the man’s glasses away from his face, Carl repeated his
question.

“You’ll
never know,” said the man calmly. “I
don’t exist.”

The
equipment these men carried made it clear to Carl that they worked for the
government and now with that cryptic comment it had to be some sort of special
division. Then Carl quickly realised
which division would sanction such a task.

“You’re
Black Ops, aren’t you?”

Again
then man did not answer.

“Why
am I being brought in? This doesn’t make
any sense. Why wouldn’t they just ask me
to come in? Why would they send you? Surely they can’t want me dead – we’re on the same side!”

At
that comment, an evil smile curled the man’s lips and sent a jolt of anger
through Carl.

Knocking
the man to his knees with blow to his head, Carl struck out a second time,
using the gun handle again to incapacitate the last of his would-be assailants
with a hard blow to his skull. If he had
wanted to Carl could have made his attacks fatal and left four corpses in his
house, but that had never been his style.
Knowing that time was short and that more men could be on the way, Carl
grabbed a bag from his cupboard. Keeping
his glasses on, he quickly found the few things he needed; passports for a
variety of alternate identifications, money in wades of bills to avoid
electronic payments, and put them in the bag with the extra guns. Taking the extra ammo clips from the two men
in his room, Carl threw those and the glasses into the bag as well. Tucking the remaining silenced gun into his
belt behind his back, Carl picked up his mobile phone and hurried back through
the darkness and downstairs.

The
silenced guns were standard government agent issued weapons – modern firearms
with built in silencers to muffle any loud bangs when firing a weapon.

There
was just one more thing he needed before he could leave. Quickly striding into his living room Carl
scooped up his father’s file and shoved it into the bag. Zipping the bag up and closing the door
behind him, Carl disappeared into the night.

4

In
the darkness Carl had reached the end of his road in only a few minutes and in
so doing, had reached the busy high street.

The
night had set in and the party people were walking about Carl, talking and
laughing loudly. Blain made his way
through the crowds and further away from his house, but as he moved, his mobile
phone rang. Taking shelter in a shop
doorway, Carl looked at the display. A
number he did not recognise flashed at him.
Answering the call, Carl asked urgently, “Who is this?”

“Relax
Mr Blain,” came a calm male voice. “Your
phone is being used to trace you and pin-point your location as we speak – but
not by me.”

“Who
are you and what the hell is going on?!”

“I
cannot answer your questions now, but if you want to live to have them answered
at all, then I suggest to get rid of that phone you’re clutching so
tightly.”

At
these words Carl noticed he was holding the phone in a fierce grip and
instinctively looked up and around to see if he was being watched. People hurried by or strolled along together
at ease in the night, but no one paid any attention to him. The voice continued. “Get rid of the phone, Mr Blain and then go to
the Ghost Club. She’ll find you when you
get there.”

The
call ended and Carl was left with little option. Putting the mobile phone down in the corner
of the closed shop’s doorway, he turned and moved back into the nightlife
crowd’s.

5

Blain
walked towards the three doormen outside the Ghost Club and looked at his
watch. It was 9:35. The club would be open for several hours yet. The doormen glanced at the bag swung over
Carl’s shoulder, but didn’t seem overly interested as Carl walked between
them.

The
loud music seemed slightly muffled this side of the doors, but the fast beats
soon filled Carl’s head as he entered the club.

‘She’ll find you when you get there,’
Carl thought as he remembered what the caller had said to him before hanging
up.

A
group of women passed in front of Carl, one of them looking seductively at him
as she strutted away. Carl smiled at the
potential key to his thought and made his way through the crowds to the
bar. His night had been violent and
taxing, so Carl ordered himself a beer and turned to watch the crowds on the
dance floor as he drunk.

The
bodies flashed and seemed to move in broken rhythm under the flashing strobe
lights. The baseline continued thumping
away in Carl’s ears and the time was swallowed up with his beer as after a few
minutes he found himself relaxing and nodding his head in time to the
repetitive beat.

As
Carl finished his drink a hand appeared on his shoulder and slender fingers
caressed his arm. Looking down, he saw a
pair of deep blue eyes shining up at him.
A stunning woman whom had more than just Carl’s attention was standing
close enough to him that anyone would think they were a couple. Wearing a tight blue dress that matched her
eyes and showed off her toned body, the woman seemed to wrap herself around
Carl without doing anything more than moving a little closer. With her eyes she told Carl to follow her and
she walked away into the crowd. As she
moved smoothly through the crowds the men watched her with lustful eyes, the
women frowned in jealous pouting, but none blocked her way as they
instinctively cleared a path for this beacon of attention, with Carl only a
step behind her as she led him to the rear of the club. The lovely woman did not look back once to
check that Carl was behind her, as she pushed open the fire exit door and
stepped out of the club.

The
door closed behind him and Carl found himself in a blind alleyway. At the far end and the only way out, a
stretched limousine was parked across the mouth of the alley. As Carl looked back to the woman she lunged
forwards, pushing him back against the door they had just come through and kissed
him passionately. The kiss lasted for
two amazing seconds and then Carl felt as if he was dreaming.

6

A
few moments later Carl came to and found himself lying on the floor. Looking to the mouth of the alleyway Carl saw
the woman in the blue dress climb into the limo and watched as the door closed
and the window came down. The woman
looked back at him and seeing he was again awake, blew him a kiss and winked
before the window rose and the car accelerated away.

As
he got up, Carl felt an envelope in his hand.
He opened the envelope suspecting that the woman’s lipstick was
chemically treated to knock him out when it made contact with his skin. He stroked at his tingling lips as he
examined the contents of the envelope.
Inside was a train ticket and another, smaller envelope with ‘Open me on the train – compartment 12’
written on it. Putting trust in his new
and mysterious helper, Carl re-sealed the envelope and put it into his
bag.

7

An
hour later Carl had boarded the train he had been given the ticket for – Washington
Station to Miami Station – and was sitting in compartment twelve. It was now eleven in the night and the train
would soon be leaving, travelling across the country at high speed during the
night.

Carl
made himself comfortable and once settled in the small compartment cabin, sat with
the smaller, unopened envelope in his hands.
A deep foreboding feeling swept over him as he ripped a seam in the
envelope open with his thumb. But before
Carl could remove the contents of the second, smaller envelope the train compartment
door opened and a man stepped quickly inside with a young woman just behind
him.

Carl
saw that the man wore a suit but was dressed too casually to be another agent
sent to bring him in, and the girl, a scared look on her face, was anything but
an agent. Not wanting to take any
chances though, Carl went for the gun he had tucked into his belt behind his
back. No sooner had the thought entered
his mind than the suited man before him raised his own hand and Carl froze,
unable to produce a single reaction thought.

Chapter
Three – August 14th 2099, 09:30

1

A
young woman of average height stood outside a summoned building. She was quite pretty with large brown eyes,
shoulder length dark brown hair and dressed mainly in black. The twenty three year old girl had arrived
early to answer the summoning she had received to be debriefed. Her hands tucked into the pockets of her
black jeans, the strap of her backpack protruding from beneath her dark hair,
hanging from the shoulder where, in a few years, a more mature lady’s bag might
hang.

On
this average morning the crowds of commuters had been slowly dying out around
her, as Dani Le Freau stood outside the plain looking building and hesitated to
go any further. Unlike the morning and
her surroundings, Dani was far from average, for Dani was a former operator of
the Dream Carrier. The youngest member
of the team of hypnotists used to work the machine invented by Dr Steven
Romonovski, but by no means the least capable.
Although far above the average girl in terms of her hypnotic powers,
Dani was also above average on the team of operators for the Dream
Carrier. Unlike the other operators who
were hypnotists and nothing more, Dani had other gifts to bring to the team,
for she also possessed the power of telekinesis – the ability to move and
control solid objects with her mind.
This impressed her peers and earned her respect, but did not display all
her mental might, for one other gift was in Dani’s power; clairvoyance – the
ability to see the future. Although this
last gift was not as strong as her others, Dani could use it to protect herself
from harm. Although her powers of
clairvoyance generally manifested themselves in her dreams, Dani could partially
use this gift to a lesser extent while awake.
In her dreams Dani could see the future, sometimes with vivid clarity,
others in a blurred jumble of images, but when she was awake, the power came to
her through her instincts. In her mind,
Dani would know things like, if she crossed the road now, a driver would slow down
and then as a result he would not hit another person ahead who was going to
cross the road in a few moments.

Dani
Le Freau was born in France and had gypsy blood in her veins. Not wanting to stay with her family and
wander aimlessly for her life, Dani had left and travelled to America. Over the last few years her gifts had guided
her until finally she found herself working for Romonovski and the government
as an operator for the Dream Carrier.

During
the last year and the months she had spent regressing with people into their
past lives, Dani had seen many things. Emotionally
affected, Dani had laughed and she had cried, and sometime she had longed for
her family. But amongst all the things
she had seen, Dani was sure that nothing could be dangerous to anyone or
incriminating in any way, and above all, no visions kept secret.

So
why had she been summoned here to be debriefed regarding the ceased Dream
Carrier project? She was sure this was
just a standard procedure to be undergone after leaving any government
job… But if that was so, why did she
have such a bad feeling about walking into the building in front of her? Dani had been rooted to the spot for the last
twenty minutes, sure that she should not go inside, but unable to think of a
reason why. 09:20 – she still had forty
minutes before she was due in.

A
hand squeezed Dani’s shoulder making her jump.
Turning sharply she let out a sigh of relief in a giggle. “Elliot, you made me jump!”

“Sorry
Dani, I didn’t mean to,” answered the man now standing with her. Elliot was almost a decade older than Dani
and like her, he too had been an operator for the Dream Carrier.

Elliot
Green was dressed in a smart suit and like Dani, had arrived to answer his
summoning. He had felt the need to be
smart when attending his debriefing at the headquarters building and like Dani,
he was no longer employed by the government.
Elliot had only been here once before and that had been for his
interview, during which both his interviewer and Dr Romonovski himself had been
very impressed with Elliot, who had been appointed team leader of the other
hypnotists. Without any doubt, Elliot
was the most powerful hypnotist to be employed as an operator for the Dream
Carrier. The reason for his power was
due to the fact that hypnotism alone was not Elliot’s only gift. He also had a powerful strength in telepathy. Elliot could both read and input suggestions
to people’s minds, which when combined with his hypnotic strength heightened it
to an awesome level. On the opposite end
of his presence, Elliot could also mask his presence, displayed only a moment
ago with his arrival.

Of
all the people that had sought to use the Dream Carrier, some required greater
depths of hypnotism than others to be linked to the machine, whereas some of
the operators had failed on occasion to create this level of power, Elliot had
never even had to exert much effort on even the most unfocused minded of
people. So strong was Elliot’s mental
power that while some of the other operators respected him and were in awe,
others were jealous or even fearful. But
Elliot had a heart of gold and Dani for one knew it. The two had formed a friendship that, due to
their mental powers was very deep and made both feel like they had known each
other all of their lives.

“You
not going in?” asked Elliot innocently.

Dani
looked from Elliot to the building and back.
Sighing deeply, she shook her head ever so slightly and replied, “I… I’m
not sure. Something…”

“I
know,” answered Elliot for her. “Just
doesn’t feel quite right does it?
Summoning us here to the main building and telling us not to try and
avoid this meeting or there would be consequences. It’s like they want us, but were too afraid
to come and get us. People don’t
threaten you unless they’re afraid of you.”

“Well,
I don’t know about that, but I certainly have a bad feeling about going in
there. What time’s your appointment?”
asked Dani making little speech marks with her hands as she said the word
‘appointment’.

“Ten
thirty. Yours?”

“You’re
early too huh? Mine’s at ten.”

“Yeah,
I just want to get this over with as soon as possible. Hey, what do you say to a coffee before we go
in? Nice hot drink might help you calm
down.”

Dani
nodded and the two walked away from the building to the nearby coffee shop they
had been eying up.

2

Sitting
by the window at a table for two, Elliot began stirring his coffee while
looking for a third sugar to add into it.

Dani
was watching the world go by through the window, wondering still exactly why
she felt so bad about being called here.

“You
know they probably want to offer us jobs or something.”

Dani
looked at Elliot and frowned. “Jobs?
Doing what?”

“You
know, like in those films where there’s a mastermind killer that the cops just
can’t predict, so they go and see some prisoner or hire some special guy-”

“Or
girl,”

“Or
girl,” corrected Elliot, “and then that person cracks the case for them. Well who better than us?”

Dani
shook her head with a bemused look on her face.

“What? It could happen,” Elliot insisted.

“Huh. You mean they’d hire us and then expect us to
just say, ‘It was Elliot Green in the kitchen with a dagger’ and wrap the case
up?”

Elliot
gave a short laugh. “Yeah, like Cluedo.”

Dani
frowned in confusion. “What’s
Cluedo?”

Elliot
sighed. “It’s a classic old game that-”
Elliot saw Dani’s eyes drift off in anxious distraction and concluded with,
“never mind.” Then sweeping his blonde
hair back, he produced a pair of smart sunglasses from his jacket’s inner
pocket and put them on.

Dani
could see her own reflection in the lenses but was soon distracted by Elliot’s
cheesy grin.

“What
do you think?” he asked as he held out his hands. “Elliot Green, psychic investigator!”

Dani
couldn’t help smiling despite still feeling nervous about her debriefing.

“Judging
from your suppressed laughter, I’m not quite a superspy just yet,” Elliot observed
as he returned his shades to his pocket.

Dani
looked back out of the window and carried on their previous conversation. “I hope it is something that simple, just
another job offer or something, but I have such a bad feeling about going into
that building…”

“Hey,
don’t forget about your chocolate – you’ve barely touched it.”

Dani
raised the mug of hot chocolate to her lips and as she drunk her eyes flicked
over the rim of her mug to the suddenly alarmed expression on Elliot’s
face.

His
hands went rigid and gripped the table and for the briefest of moments he shook
like a leaf on a branch in a strong wind.
Then the moment seemed to pass and Elliot looked into Dani’s eyes.

“I
felt it too,” she said calmly, “though without you telepathy, I doubt I felt it
quite that powerfully.”

Elliot
closed his eyes, raised his brows then started to restore his facial look.

Dani
continued, “Those psychic waves have been coming through ever since the Dream
Carrier went into use. Once you get used
to them… What is it, you look terrified.”

Elliot
looked at her for a moment before he answered, his voice suddenly shaky. “You can control the blast waves better, but
this one wasn’t like the others. I heard
a voice, telling me in no uncertain terms, not
to go into that building.”

Dani
put down her mug. “Stop it Elliot, you
know I don’t like it when people tease me about my feelings.”

“I’m
not teasing you. You believe me when I
tell you how easy it is for me to hypnotise people, how I can read their minds
and make them do things. You know that’s
where all my psychic strengths lie… The
wave that just hit us had a voice on it – I heard it in my mind.”

“What
exactly did it say – did you recognise it?”

“No,
I didn’t recognise it,” Elliot answered distractedly looking at his half empty
coffee cup, “but the message… Compressed,
it said ‘They’re disguising agents and keeping
us. Don’t go in – RUN!’ Then I got a picture of the building we’re
supposed to go to in my mind.”

Dani
shivered but not from feeling cold. “I
knew there was something wrong. What
should we do?”

“I
don’t know, but neither of us are keeping our appointments – let them try to
find us instead! Have you got somewhere
other than your home that you can go to for a while?”

“Not
really.”

“That’s
okay,” said Elliot, his voice growing more panicky by the second, “you can come
with me to my cousin’s place. I’ve never
mentioned her to anyone at work, we’ll be able to stay there until we decide
what to do.”

With
equal concern, Dani questioned. “Do you
really think that’s necessary? I mean,
won’t just not showing up for the debriefing be enough?”

“You
were the one telling me you had a bad feeling about this. Now I get a telepathic message telling us to
run and you just want to go home?”

Dani
smiled masked confidence and picked up her backpack. “Okay, why don’t we both go back to my house,
then when you see it’s all okay I’m sure you’ll calm down too. Besides, I only have a bad feeling about
going into that building, nothing
about my home.”

Elliot
was on his feet and putting on his suit jacket as he agreed. “Fine.
We’ll go to yours and see if you get any more weird feelings. But if I get another warning before then
we’re going straight to my cousin’s.”

3

An
hour later Elliot had received no more warnings and the two friends were
walking the last few steps down the street before reaching Dani’s small home,
when suddenly Dani stopped dead in her tracks.

“There’s
something wrong.”

Elliot
looked at her home, a small house just a few steps further on their left and
then looked worryingly at Dani. “What is
it?!”

The
concerned look on her face vanished and a playful smile shone back at him.

“Oh,
and you tell other people you don’t like to be teased!”

“Come
on, admit it – you feel a lot better now and you’ve not had any more
warnings. In fact, how do you even know
that was meant for us?” Dani turned her
key in the lock as she spoke. As they
walked into her house together Dani’s mind flashed into the future and showed
her a blurred image of a shadow waiting for them.

In
the same instant Elliot put his hand on her shoulder and held her where she
was. He leaned in close behind her and
whispered, “I can hear someone’s thoughts in here with us – do you still live
alone?”

The
answer was ‘yes’ but Dani felt too afraid to say it and as she hesitated in her
fear not knowing what to do, a voice called out to them from within her living
room.

“Miss
Le Freau, is Mr Green still with you?”
The voice was male and as it spoke they heard footsteps coming towards
them through the small room the voice had emanated from. Moments later a large, smartly dressed man stepped
into sight and smiled at them, but not in a pleasant way. “I’m glad you’re both still together – you
were seen outside our building, but then instead of returning on time for your
interview, Miss Le Freau you did not return at all. I’m glad you came here and might I say, to me
first, and now I have the opportunity to speak with you. My name is Mr Kadesh and I represent your
former employers. They wish to speak to
you.”

As
Kadesh spoke a fresh wave of fear washed over Dani at the thought of going back
to the building, and she stepped backwards until her hair brushed against
Elliot’s chin.

“How
did you get into my house and what do you need to talk to us about?” asked Dani.

“I’m
afraid that’s classified. I’m just here
to escort you in,” Kadesh answered ignoring the question regarding his entry
and as he took a step closer to them.

Although
Kadesh had answered through his mouth, he had also answered the main question
in his mind, and the terrifying response left no doubt in Elliot’s mind as to
the danger they were in. He put his
hands on Dani’s upper arms and as he made contact with her and held her in
place, he sent her a clear message; “Don’t move, he knows we suspect
him. Trust me.” As Elliot sent this thought into Dani’s mind,
he slowly slid his hands up her arms and then abruptly he shot his left arm out
over her shoulder as if he was choking Kadesh even though they were still
several steps apart. Using the physical
gesture to completely bring Kadesh’s mental attention to him, Elliot unleashed
his powerful mind.

As
Kadesh turned and walked away, Elliot slipped around Dani and followed him, all
the time keeping his iron like grip on his mental prisoner’s mind. “Now, you’ll not move again until exactly one
hour after we have left and you will not remember seeing us. As far as you will know we did not come here
and you do not know what happened to us.
Do you understand?”

Kadesh
was a man used to following orders and as such he answered as he had been
trained to do. “Sir, yes Sir.”

“Good,”
said Elliot, his voice calm with the situation perfectly under his
control. “Dani? Quickly get your things, whatever you think
you’ll need – we’re going and I don’t think you’ll be back here anytime
soon.”

“Elliot? What’s going on? I saw that man as a dark shadow waiting for
us!”

“I
searched his mind when he answered you for the truth. This runs a lot deeper than either one of us
suspected. There’s not time to explain
now, we have to get out of here and get as far away as we can.”

Quickly
Dani gathered some personal possessions which Elliot assumed had nothing more
than sentimental value and put them into her backpack.

“This
is all I need. I’m ready.”

“Good. We can’t go to my cousin’s anymore, I don’t
want to chance involving her. If they
were able to be waiting here for us, for you, then I can’t rule out that they
could find us at her place sooner than we might think. I don’t want members of my family involved in
this and we can’t involve anyone else…
Do you have any ideas of a place where we could lie low?”

“What
about going to the police? Surely we’d
be safe with them?!”

“No,
Dani – think! These people work for the
government – for all we know they could bring the police in to search
for us! We can’t go to the police, at
least not until we can prove that we’re in danger.”

Dani
bit her lower lip as she thought for a moment.
“Let’s just go. I mean, we could
just get on the move. If we have no
destination then they can never be waiting for us. We’ll just run for now, run until we feel
safe.”

Elliot
nodded and a few moments later, Mr Kadesh was sitting alone in the small house
once more, waiting on the lookout for Dani and Elliot to arrive.

4

“There’s
some things I need to get from my place.
I think we’ll be alright too, if they only sent one guy to your house,
then it’s a safe guess they only sent one guy to mine too. I don’t suppose they thought they’d have any
trouble escorting us in.”

“Are
you sure?”

Elliot
sighed. “No, I’m not. What do you feel, Dani? Is going to my place anything like the
feeling you get about going to that building they called us to?”

Dani
let out a deep breath then shook her head.
“It’s not exactly filling me with happiness or dread. Just feels… I don’t know, nothing either way
really.” She frowned and then continued
angrily. “I wish I had more
control!”

“Sorry,
I forgot you’re clairvoyance isn’t so good.
I shouldn’t put you on the spot like that. It must make you feel responsible for our
actions and I’ve got no right to do that.”

“No,
it’s all- hey, you’re not reading my
mind are you?”

Elliot
dipped his head “Daniiiii, I don’t need to read minds to know how my friends
are feeling – I am still human you know.
Besides, when do I ever invade your privacy?”

“Sorry. You’re right, I know you don’t invade
friends. But I can’t tell if going to
your house is dangerous or not. What is
it you’ve got to get?”

“My
money and, well, there’s something else,” Elliot looked down at the street as
they continued walking.

“Your
wedding band.”

Elliot
looked back up into Dani’s eyes, surprised at her accurate guess. “I know I’m not married anymore, but I can’t
leave it behind, not if I might not be back.”

“It’s
okay. We’ll get it,” Dani said in a
soothing voice as she rubbed Elliot’s arm.
“Maybe having it will be like having Angela watch over us too. God knows we could do with some help.”

“Yeah… maybe.”

5

Elliot
lived in an apartment block and as he led Dani out of the elevator on the seventeenth
floor, he could already feel another mind in his home. An intruding presence that felt as alien and
outstanding to him as an extra limb. A
few steps later he stood outside his front door and could almost grip the mind
waiting inside from there.

“One
guy, waiting, alone,” Elliot whispered to Dani.

“Will
you be able to control him?”

Elliot
opened the door and whispered back, “Piece of cake,” as he stalked quickly
inside and immediately engulfed the mind he could sense in his kitchen. Elliot greeted the cold smile with one of his
own, but this time he raised his arm and seized control of the man before a
single word could be said.

Moments
later the suited intruder was sat comfortably in Elliot’s armchair with a
vacant look in his eyes and a blank expression on his face.

As
Dani stood by the door to the living room watching the motionless man, she felt
in awe of Elliot’s powerful hypnotism.
His telepathy and his hypnotic powers were without equal and she felt
glad that he was a good man and her friend.

Elliot
was indeed a hypnotist from the Dream Carrier project whose powers had been grossly
inaccurately underestimated, and hence his capture and detainment had not been
correctly attempted. Like Dani, Elliot
had been assigned a single Black Ops agent, between who, neither had been
successful nor able to retain their target, or even a memory of their encounter. But to the assassins’ benefit, the pain
Elliot could have caused them had not been experienced.

A
minute later Elliot emerged from his bedroom, the wedding band now on his
finger and a backpack of his own over his shoulder. He still wore his suit but had now removed
his tie and looked far more casual as a result.
“Ready?”

Dani
gave a nod and walked from the window, passed Elliot out into the hall.

With
a final look at the seated mystery man, Elliot followed Dani out, closing his
front door behind him.

6

As
the two were leaving the building they both felt another psychic wave hit them
with a mental sensation. Dani gave a
sharp inhale and closed her eyes, quickly recovering from the shock.

Elliot
staggered backwards and leaned against the lobby wall for support. He raised a hand and gripped the side of his
head, which itself felt as though it would explode at any moment. Then just as quickly as it had come, the pain
was gone and a new thought was in Elliot’s mind. For the second time that day Elliot had
received a telepathic message, only this time there were no words to the
message, only a picture sent to his mind.

“Dani,”
Elliot called, her name barely escaping on his breath.

Hurrying
to his side, Dani looped her arm around his waist and helped him to straighten
up on his feet. “That was one of the
strongest blasts I’ve ever felt!”

“I
got another message,” Elliot confirmed.

“Are
we in danger?!” she asked urgently.

Taking
a step away and straightening his posture, Elliot recovered from the psychic
wave and answered in a stronger voice. “No.
This time it was an instruction, I’m sure. I saw a picture of a station I’ve been to
before. We’ll need to catch a couple of
other trains and maybe a cab or something to get there, but I know where we’re
supposed to be; compartment twelve.”

7

It
took the rest of the day discreetly travelling, waiting for trains and flagging
taxi’s but as the evening arrived Elliot had led Dani to the place in his mind;
Washington Station. They had walked into the large train station
and cut their path through the crowd of commuters to the centre of the main
concourse.

Elliot
was standing stock still, eyes closed, concentrating on the mental picture he
had received. They had come to the
station to board a train – but which one?

Dani
stood close to him, watching the crowds warily.
Business men passed her in their smart suits, and each one that neared,
she watched, waiting for him reveal himself as an agent and reach out and grab
her, dragging her back to the building she was so afraid of. To her relief no one seemed to even notice her.

“Hurry!”
she whispered urgently into Elliot’s ear.

Opening
his eyes Elliot’s rigid body relaxed.
“It’s no good, I can’t see it. I
don’t know which train we need to catch.”

The
wide eyed Bambi look Dani gave him was heart-breaking, but Elliot was a man of
both intelligence and wisdom and he knew a distraction, a return to ordinary
life – no matter how momentary that return was – would be enough to relax Dani
and calm the feeling of dread he knew must still be strong within her. “Are you hungry?”

“Huh?”

“Well,
we haven’t eaten all day. There’s a
burger place just over there, let’s get some dinner. Besides, can’t think on an empty
stomach.” Without giving her any more
time to think, he put his hands on her shoulders and turned her in the direction
of the fast-food restaurant.

8

Elliot
never invaded Dani’s mind – or that of any other person he considered a friend
– but he did reach out with his telepathic power just enough to sense her mood;
calm. As they enjoyed their lean and
nutrition burgers together, the barely warm food seemed to have done the trick
and banished the cold dread Dani had masked and dealt with most of the
day.

They
ate in silence until only their drinks remained. Dani was sipping the last of her medically
enhanced milkshake through her straw while keeping her eyes on the crowds
through the window near to their corner booth table.

Elliot
followed her gaze and looked at all the people that were so close to each other
and yet ignored each other completely.
Composed, with no threats of theft or violence. It was like watching thousands of people each
pretending that they were the only person in the huge station as they travelled
home from work or out for the night.
Elliot let his mind slip into the crowds and began listening to all the
jumbled thoughts of each chaotic mind.
Loved ones. Teenagers. The day at work. The night to come. Where they’re going. Where they’ve been. Where they want to be. All these thoughts and so many more
threatened to wash away Elliot’s roaming mind and drown him in a sea of
thoughts that were not his own. Each
mind he touched had a different destination attached to it, but none of them
triggered the thought that Elliot so desperately searched for.

“Elliot?”

His
eyes met hers and he smiled.

“What
are we going to do?” Dani asked.

“I
don’t know,” he replied softly. “But I
think if we just stay here for a while…
I’m sure it will come to me.”

“I’m
scared,” Dani admitted, shuffling in her seat.

Elliot
raised his arms above the table and Dani slid around the booth into them. As the two sat holding each other Elliot confessed
quietly back to her, “Me too.”

9

For
hours they sat in the corner of the restaurant, Elliot scanning the minds of as
many people as he could, hoping for some clue as to what to do next, Dani
asleep in his arms, overwhelmed through the days excitement. The evening became the night and the sight
through the window transformed into a reflection of themselves. Although his body rested with the sleeping
girl, Elliot’s mind was like a computer processing each of the thoughts he
intercepted. During the hours that
passed he did not tire nor falter from the task he had given himself. Scanning mind after mind, checking for
possible solutions to their problem, analysing any possibility of threat to
them, and constantly seeking to match the mind of their guided intention. The other customers in the fast-food place
were reduced to the hungry drunks that needed something to compliment all the
beer in their stomachs, the staff that had been eying them waiting for the
couple to leave, did nothing more than ignore them now. Until finally, at just a little before 23:00
that night, the thought Elliot had been searching for came, in a mind he had
not expected.

Elliot
squeezed Dani gently and whispered her name.
She snuggled against him for a moment and then her eyes opened.

“I
know where we have to go to reach compartment twelve…”

Chapter
Four – August 14th 2099,
23:10

1

Elliot
now walked with Dani tucked under his arm, holding her about her slender
shoulders. She was so tired still and as
they walked she allowed him to guide her as, only half conscious, she followed
him through the almost deserted station, through an un-manned and open ticket
barrier, and out onto a platform with a waiting train upon it. The lights so high above in the roof of the
station seemed not to be shining as brightly and shrouding the station in only
a dim light, as Elliot led Dani passed the first few carriages and then finally
onto the forth. Once aboard, Elliot
walked in front, down the narrow passage way until he reached compartment
twelve, where Dani gave a sharp intake of breath and suddenly seemed to come to
her senses, alert and fully awake once more.

“We
need to go inside,” she believed.

“I
know,” agreed Elliot. “There’s someone
like us in there, not psychic, but someone who’s running from the same ones
that we are. Inside is the mind that I
found, also at our destination. Come on
Dani, we have to be brave.”

Elliot
opened the door and stepped quickly inside, Dani right behind him. The person they saw inside was quite a large
man seemingly in his mid-thirties. He
was dressed in a leather jacket, similar to the one Dani was wearing, only his
was several sizes larger and looked to be much newer. For a heartbeat the three stared warily at
each other and then Elliot shot his hand out and the wary look in the man’s
eyes disappeared, replaced by a calmness that made him look almost
harmless.

“Quick,
shut the door!”

Dani
did as Elliot advised and then turned her attention back to the two men. “Who is he?
Was he going to hurt us?”

Dani
remained silent, looking from one to the other and then Elliot lowered his hand
and opened his eyes, and the man seated before them snapped out of the trance
he had been in. In an instant he was on
his feet with a pistol in his hands and aimed at Elliot’s chest.

Dani
tucked herself behind Elliot as he moved to put himself between her and the
gunman. An envelope that the man had
been holding slid gracefully to the floor as with equal grace Elliot calmly
raised his hands.

“Don’t
shoot, Carl. We’re not your
enemies.”

“Who
the hell are you and how the hell do you know my name?” But even as Carl asked these questions the
sense of familiarity came to him. He
knew both of these people, but from where?

The
tone of Elliot’s voice was so relaxing, so soothing and giving off a feeling of
trust that Carl could not ignore. He
found himself tucking his gun away and sitting back down before he had even
decided to do so in his mind.

Elliot
and Dani moved, sat opposite him and as they sat, Dani scooped down and
retrieved the envelope now by her feet.
Without hesitation she offered the envelope back to Carl who took it
with an utter of thanks.

“This
is Dani. My name is Elliot. We used to work as operators for the Dream
Carrier – the machine you used to protect.”

Carl
shook his head as he finally placed the two of them - how could he have
forgotten?

Elliot
continued. “I heard about you, but we
never actually met. I was the team
leader of the hypnotists working with the Dream Carrier and Dani was on my
team.”

“I
know, I remember you now,” Carl stated. “I
had your record, both your records to review for safety precautions.”

“That’s
right. And tonight, we were led to you,
although how is a bit of a complicated story. When I sensed your apprehension and that you
were going to go for your gun, I stopped you.
I read your mind, or your thoughts if you like, and that’s how I know a
bit about you.”

“You
read my mind?”

“Please,
don’t be offended. You must understand
that we’re in great danger. We can’t
trust anybody and I had to make sure that you would be willing to listen to us… so I relaxed you, put the suggestion in there,”
Elliot tapped the side of his head, “that you would at least listen to what we
have to say.”

Carl
looked warily from Elliot to Dani and back again. “You may not have ever met me, but I actually
know both of you. I didn’t just protect
the Dream Carrier, I was in charge of
its protection. You’re right, we never
met, but, as I said, I know you both from the files about you I read. You say your name is Elliot? That would make you Elliot Green, team leader
and a hypnotist of such power, that your file is on the verge of being
classified.”

Elliot
blinked in shock and sat back.

“And
you’re Dani? Then that would make you
Dani Le Freau. Originally from France
you moved over here to the States a few years ago and are the youngest member
of staff we had on the DC’s operators list.”

Dani
smiled coyly but gave no answer.

“I
also know, thanks to your records, that both of you have, err, other gifts than
purely being hypnotists.”

“I
didn’t think they knew what I, what we can do,” admitted Elliot.

Carl
continued. “I take it from your bags that you decided against going in for the
last debriefings I heard were finishing today?”

“You
knew?!” asked Elliot in shock.

Carl
shook his head. “I don’t know anything
except that a bunch of guys working for the people that want to ‘debrief’
you, came and tried to do a lot more than debrief me. I don’t know why though. Why they didn’t just call me in? Why send agents to take me out instead? I don’t get it.”

Elliot
commented. “I don’t know if you’re the
only one they’ve tried to kill. Earlier
today, I got a strong mental massage, one I’ll never forget. Compressed, it said ‘They’re disguising agents and keeping us. Don’t go in – RUN!’. I don’t know who that message came from or
why they wanted us to run, but we did.
We went to both our separate homes and there was actually a man, a
different agent, waiting for us in both with instructions to bring us in.”

Dani
sat forward and helped with the narrative. “But Elliot hypnotised them both and so we got
away.”

“Then
I got another message showing me this station and I knew we had to find compartment
twelve, but I didn’t know which one. I
searched the minds of as many people as I could until finally, I found
yours. I sensed you were running and
knew that you were the person we should follow, and that the train you were on
was the one we need to be on too, in compartment twelve.”

“But
why are we running?” asked Dani. “I
mean, I know why we’re running – because of the message Elliot got, but
what about you, I mean? Surely you could
just go and sort all this out with the people you work for?”

Carl
responded seriously. “No, four guys came
to my house and were trying to kill me.”

“Four?!”
Dani echoed.

Carl
nodded and proceeded. “They were from a
shady side of the Agency, a special division nicknamed Black Ops – that’s the
missions and operations that aren’t officially sanctioned – and when I tried to
interrogate one of them, he wouldn’t tell me a damn thing, except that obviously
someone has ordered me killed.”

Dani
looked at the two men and asked, “What are we going to do?”

Neither
man answered.

With
a subtle jolt, the train pulled out of the station and began its long journey
off into the night.

2

“Someone
is helping us, of that much I’m sure,” said Carl. “Right before those guys came for me, I got a
call, a warning. Then afterwards, I got
another call telling me to lose my mobile phone and that I should go to a
club. When I got there, a woman gave me
an envelope with a ticket for this train in it.”

“You’re
right,” agreed Elliot. “Someone has to
have sent me the mental message I got too and again that was a warning. Then the image of the station… Someone has definitely been guiding us, but
why?”

“And
why would they want us together?” asked Dani.

Carl
looked at Dani and without a shred of psychic fibre in his body, he could feel
her fear. “Try not to worry,” he supported
the young girl. “I don’t think this is a
trap. Why go to all this trouble? Why warn us?
Why bring us together if the only goal is to kill us?”

“And
another thing,” Elliot added, “whoever is helping us is definitely a strong
psychic themselves.”

“But
how do we know it’s the same person?” Carl wondered.

“It’s
got to be the same person, Carl. Like
Dani said, why want us together? It
can’t be coincidence that we’re guided to the same place by different
people!”

Carl,
realising he still had the envelope in his hand, opened it to reveal three
tickets stamped with the name ‘Hialeah
Private Airport, Flight L1’ and a folded up piece of paper. Handing two tickets to Elliot, Carl begun
unfolding the paper.

“Three
tickets. Well this proves that the same
person has been guiding us,” stated Elliot as he turned and handed a ticket to
Dani. But the young girl had fallen
asleep once more. Elliot saw that these
were private tickets and had no final destination on them, causing him to ponder
who had booked their private flight, then put both into his jacket pocket. Turning his attention back to the paper in
Carl’s hands, Elliot pointed, “What is that?”

For
a moment Carl did not answer, distracted by whatever was written on the
paper. “It’s a copy of a death
certificate… Of my father’s death
certificate.”

Carl
summarised to Elliot about his father, about the classified files surrounding
his death and that he had never been able to find out what had happened. Then he answered the question, “You ask what
this means? It means, that whoever is
helping us knows more about us –or me at least– than I’m happy with. If this person can tell me what happened to
my father, then we may be in even greater danger.”

“And
someone with this kind of knowledge, could be very powerful indeed,” concluded
Carl.

Chapter
Five – August 15th 2099,
11:55

1

The
train journey lasted through the night, granting rest to them, and lasting
until the following morning. Eventually
they arrived at their destination – the southern part of Florida, in Miami
Station.

Once
the train stopped, Carl looked at his two new comrades and saw that neither of
them were about to lead the way. Also
being slightly older than Elliot and even more so than Dani, the role of
leadership fell naturally into Carl’s responsibility. “Okay,” he started, “we’ve got to get from
here to Hialeah Private Airport.
Shouldn’t be any trouble at all – no one can be looking for us
here! Grab your stuff and lets go.”

Carl
sounded far more confident than he actually was. Although he had a destination and was with
friends, he did not really trust either of the hypnotists yet and he knew
enough about the people that were after him to know never to underestimate
their reach. Carl led with Elliot and
Dani both a step behind him. He saw
everything and nothing looked suspicious as they walked through the lunchtime
crowds in the station and made their way to the exit.

Elliot
wrapped an arm around an anxious Dani as much to steady his own nerves as to
comfort her. “Are you having any
feelings?”

“Uh-uh. What about you, picking up any bad people on
the ‘mind scanner’?”

“Nothi-” Elliot looked behind them and saw a large
framed man fold his newspaper and get up, all the while not taking his eyes
from Dani.

“I
don’t suppose you know the guy that just got up and started following us…”

Dani
looked over her shoulder at the man Elliot was now describing. “Err, no.
He looks like he knows me though!”

As
Carl glanced over his shoulder he instantly recognised the man now following
them. “Shit! Get going you two – get us a cab outside the
station, I’ll be right out…” As Carl
spoke he had turned and walked back passed Dani and Elliot, handing his bag to
Elliot as he made a direct line for their pursuer.

Elliot
grabbed Dani’s hand and ran with her through the crowds and out of the
station. The station had a large choice
of taxi’s waiting outside and Elliot ran to the closest, opening the door for
Dani and sending her and Carl’s bag into the back seat. He spun around looking back at the station, but
there was no sign of Carl.

“Elliot?!”
Dani called from within the cab.

Elliot
was focusing his mind, trying to search out Carl in the crowds surrounding
him. “It’s no good, there’s too many
people, I can’t find him.”

“But
what about the encounter with that man!
Will we make it to the airport on time?!”

Elliot
had no answer for her.

2

Carl
marched towards the man he recognised as a CIA Black Ops agent, one of the men
that had come to his house the night before.
The man did not even seem to see Carl until they were only a few steps
apart as he was so focused on the fleeing hypnotists.

“You!”
the agent cried in recognition of Carl.

Before
anything else could happen, Carl slammed his gun handle into the agent’s solar-plexus
and doubled him over. As he bent, Carl quickly
holstered his own weapon, then slipped the surprised agent’s gun from its
holster and into his own belt. Without
further hesitation Carl shouted out, “Someone please help, this man is having a
heart attack!”

Of
course no one in the busy crowds moved to help, but everyone at once turned to
look at Carl and the doubled over, wheezing man.

“Quickly
Sir, lie down!” Carl shouted as he gripped the agent and forced him to the
floor. The agent was beginning to
recover from the attack now and as he tried to resist, Carl pretended to be
restarting his heart, hitting the agent as hard as he could with both hands
balled up together, but ‘accidentally’ missing his target. Instead of hitting the man’s chest, Carl
winded him again by hitting him in the stomach.
“Sir! Please stop squirming! I’m trying to help!”

Luck
then played a great part in what happened next as a pretty young woman stepped
from the gathering crowd and knelt beside Carl.
“I’m a nurse, I can help!” she offered bravely.

“Great!”
responded Carl. “You stay here, I’m
going to get help from the station staff!”
Using this reasonable excuse Carl was soon up and running through the
crowd and out of the station.

3

As
Carl disappeared behind a wall of people, the agent finally rolled to his feet
and pushed the helpful nurse aside. “I’m
not having an heart attack!” he all but screamed at her. Then the man realised that for the second
time, Carl Blain had robbed him of his gun and the Black Ops agent shoved his
way through the surrounding crowd and chased after his antagonist. He ran to the exit and out of the station
just in time to watch a cab pulling away to be lost in a sea of traffic,
swallowed up by a fleet of identical cars.

“This
is Rolent,” the agent said into a tiny communicator at his wrist. “I made contact with the targets, but they got
away. They’ve got Blain with them! They’re heading east in a cab. Request immediate pick-up from station’s main
entrance!”

A
voice that whispered into Rolent’s ear from his earpiece answered back with an
acknowledgment. Moments later a dark car
screeched to a stop on the other side of the column of taxi’s and Rolent,
side-stepping between two taxi bumpers, was once more in pursuit.

4

“How
could they know we were here?” Dani cried.

“They
could have seen us last night at the station or something – I don’t know!”
answered Elliot in frustration from the opposite seat.

The
cabs were designed to feature standard back seats with unfolding opposite seats
with their back to the driver.

From
beside Dani, “Big Brother,” Carl said calmly as he looked behind them out of
the back window. “They probably tracked
one of us through cameras at the station.
Once they could verify which train we boarded, that gave them the whole
night to fly people down here and get ready to catch us. As the guy was pretty surprised to see me,
I’m guessing they only saw you two on camera and didn’t think they’d have any
trouble bringing you in – hence one guy by himself waiting on the platform.”

Elliot
nodded to himself in agreement. “You’d
think that they might have learned by now if they somehow missed even seeing
us, or remembering seeing us at our
homes, they might send more than one person to get us each.” He glanced up then added, “Or four guys, as
that’s what they sent you, wasn’t it?”

“But
what do we do now?” interrupted Dani.
“If they know we’re here, then they’re gonna catch us!”

“She
of little faith,” Carl answered with a sly grin on his face. Carl was momentarily distracted. “I’m more worried about our driver here –
awful quiet there friend!” he called to the driver.

Elliot
looked behind him to the driver and then back to Carl. “He won’t remember a thing – I guarantee
it.”

Carl
smiled and turned to Dani on the back seat beside him. “Try not to worry, kiddo.”

“You
don’t need to treat me like a baby! I
can take care of myself when it comes down to it!”

“Hey,
I never-”

“Look
just because I’m a little more worried than you about being caught, doesn’t
mean you can patronise me!”

“Dani!”
cried Elliot, as he stopped her tout.

“It’s
been a long morning,” Carl smoothed in his usual calm tone. “I didn’t mean to patronise you. I’m sorry if that’s what you thought.”

Dani
sighed and looked away, turning her head to look out of the window. Elliot looked up out of the rear of the car
once more and like the others, now sat quietly.

The
taxi had just pulled onto the freeway. When Elliot scanned the rear window he saw a
black car swerving violently out behind them and rapidly become larger closing in.

“Carl!”

The
two other passengers spun around and looked back at the fast approaching
car.

“What
do we do?!” cried Dani.

“You
two stay down,” Carl replied as he took out one of the guns in his belt. Winding down the window, Carl leaned out and
squeezed off a pair of shots from the silenced pistol at the pursuers
tyres. Both shots missed, one bouncing
off of the road, the other shooting passed the car and hitting the headlamp of
another car behind. “I can’t get a good
shot from this angle!”

“Then
let me try,” entered Dani and she turned, knelt on the back seat and looked out
at the car behind them. In an anxious
reaction to the situation Dani was eager to test her powers. For several moments she stared intently and
nothing seemed to happen, then Carl realised that the car behind was slowing
down.

“Then
allow me to help you, my dear.” No
sooner had Elliot spoken than the other drivers around them on the road seemed
to open a path before them, while at the same time cars began to swerve in
perfect co-ordination to block the Black Ops car from getting any nearer.

Carl
watched in stunned silence at what he could scarcely believe was happening
before his eyes. Cars moved and forced
the Black Ops car to slow down or be caught in the centre of a possible
crash. The agents did indeed have a
technically advanced vehicle, but not superior enough to equal an armoured
tank.

As
Carl watched he noticed that only one car at a time moved to intercept the
people chasing them, almost as if Elliot were playing a game of chess on the
freeway and using the other cars around them as his pieces, moving one at a
time to either attack or defend their taxi – their proverbial king.

Elliot
pointed forwards and their driver sped up, the cab roaring away through a
cleared lane of traffic, while the cars behind them moved almost like a Mexican
wave into a formation to block any chance of someone following them.

With
each mind that Elliot focused on, he left the small suggestion of safety above
all else, so once his hold on a mind was released, the driver regained control
with an overwhelming desire to stay within the speed limit and drive as if they
were re-taking their driving test and Elliot being their instructor, had left
explicit directions for each driver to follow.
Elliot’s experience with hypnotism and his strong telepathic power meant
that only very few drivers did not follow his mental suggestions. Those that were furthest away or that Elliot
only had a split second to touch minds with were the most resistant. Like Dani, Elliot would never allow himself
to place someone else in danger.

Still
focused on their follower, Dani saw the agent from the station poke his head
out of the car and aim his replacement gun.

Without
warning Dani screamed as she realised what was about to happen, her eyes shut
tight and for a brief moment their pursuers lurched forwards. The motion was enough to jolt the agent and
send his silencer shot off into the air.
He aimed again and fired once more, but this time Dani could feel the
gun in her mind. Focused on slowing
their pursuers, she sensed the agent’s finger pull the trigger, the miniature
explosion in the barrel as the shell exploded out from the gun. In the space of a heartbeat Dani snatched the
bullet with her powerful mind and threw it to one side. The shot ricocheted off the frame of the taxi
with a loud ping.

The
agent aimed the silenced gun for a third shot but was denied his opportunity as
his target swerved behind the cover of a truck.
“Go around!” the agent screamed at the driver.

“I’m
trying, but the car’s handling like a brick with no tyres!” answered the agent driver
as he wrenched the wheel over and forced the car around the far side of the
truck.

They
reached the outskirts of Hialeah and Elliot instructed their cab driver to turn
off for the airport, while at the same time he focused on those drivers that
would pass the turning as the car chasing them.
While their pursuers were behind the truck he had so efficiently
manipulated, Elliot shifted his focus and the other drivers slowed down and
manoeuvred into a wall, almost bumper to bumper, forcing the Black Ops car away
from the turn off. The driver was
determined to cut back across and into the airport turning, but before he could
manoeuvre Dani finally released her telekinetic hold on the car and the Black
Ops agents were slammed against their seats as their car shot forward, no
longer restrained by her powerful will.
The result was that even without the other drivers on the freeway trying
to block the turning, tyres screamed and the agents overshot the airport road
at an incredible speed and were soon too far ahead to consider driving back and
being forced to drive on into Hialeah itself.

5

Elliot
paid the driver correctly while leaving his mind hypnotically altered about the
last fare he had taken, Dani standing at his side.

Carl
looked from one to the other and realised the power that these two individuals
possessed. He had not trusted them, but
now he understood that if they were his enemies, if they wanted to take him in,
there was nothing he could do to prevent it.
Elliot alone could practically possess him, but now Carl was beginning
to fathom that Dani too had incredible power.
For the first time since meeting them, Carl now felt as though he
were the one that they were looking after, that he was the weak link and
in most need of protection. It was a
humbling feeling for the CIA man and one he had not felt in a long time. For his following digressed thought, with no
arrogance in any way attached, Carl knew why, like himself, these two had been
the last targets the Black Ops had assigned.
With everyone else seemingly already taken, who could the top Dream
Carrier project staff now call? If the
plan had been executed in reverse, with Elliot, Dani and himself being the first targets, then perhaps many others
could have been warned of danger and able to escape.

Now
it was Elliot and Dani that walked in the lead towards the airport entrance and
Carl that followed quietly as they passed through the automatic opening doors
and made their way to the small passenger flight desk.

The
airport was not particularly large and the weather outside showed no signs of
affecting their flight.

Elliot
gathered their tickets and showed them to the attendant who scanned them over
and then directed the three travellers to the helipad they would be boarding
from.

Carl
continued to feel a subdued emotion of weakness as he watched Elliot hypnotise
people on the spot, instructing them to allow himself, Dani and Carl to pass
without delay. The few staff and
security people present gave them no troubles and did not want to check their
bags, each smiling politely as they helped the three on their way.

At
one stage Dani grabbed them both and held them back behind a corner. They then watched as two suited men marched
passed, one of them talking to a tiny communicator at his wrist.

Elliot
knew these men were searching for them by reading their minds.

It
seemed to Carl that it had not taken long for the agents that had followed them
on the freeway to find their way back to the airport. Carl had learned experience through dealing
with such men throughout his career. How
Dani had known that they should wait where they were to avoid these men… That was a mystery to Carl but none the less
had added to the respect and awe that he now held both Dani and Elliot, the
hypnotist specialists in. Reading their
files long ago when his involvement in the Dream Carrier project had first
begun, Carl had made notes of the abilities of each of the operators that would
be working in his care. He had noted
that each was gifted in hypnosis, only few having other abilities also, but
only now did he fully understand the depth of the gifts that Elliot and Dani
possessed. It was still not clear to
Carl why the Black Ops branch of the CIA had been ordered to kill him, but it
was now easier to understand why the hypnotists were so badly wanted. What government would not be afraid of these
people – especially when they knew secrets that the Dream Carrier had revealed
to them?

For
each previous life that had been remembered, a hypnotist had been present and
seen everything. Sessions that were
recorded only to have those files confiscated, people that disappeared for a
while after using the Dream Carrier, every snippet of information, it was all
still intact in the minds of the operators and two of those minds were with him
right now.

Carl
was at peace with understanding and feeling considerably more respectful and
caring towards his new friends by the time they were on the helipad. He had no doubts that alone, he could have
found his way and made it this far without too much hassle. But to have brought others with him? Two people that needed him to look after them
and protect them… Carl was not so sure
he could have succeeded. But to Elliot
it had been effortless. With Dani’s
danger awareness working at its peak level, the three of them had gotten out
onto the helipad in what seemed like enough time to take a single deep breath,
and Elliot had assured them that no one in the airport would remember
them.

6

A
large luxury helicopter awaited the three and as they approached a stewardess
appeared as if by magic. “Mr Green?” she
checked looking at Elliot as he led the group toward her.

“Yes,”
Elliot confirmed with a nod.

The
uniformed lady turned her attention and continued. “Then that would make you Miss Le Freau and Mr
Blain,” she affirmed to each in turn.
“Welcome. Your host sends his
compliments and asks that we hurry. As
I’m sure you’re aware, you were followed and are even now the objectives of a
search being conducted throughout this very airport. Our staff are keeping your pursuers occupied,
but please hurry aboard.” Without
waiting for a reply the flight attendant turned her back to the three and
boarded the helicopter, which swiftly began spinning its rotors.

“It’s
alright,” said Elliot. “She’s on the
level and, apart from the pilot, I can’t sense any other minds on board. Dani, you getting anything?”

In
reply Dani looked intently at the helicopter before murmuring in barely more
than a whisper, “I don’t know.
Something’s… It’s as if something
is being hidden. Like not being able to
remember something.” Turning to Elliot,
“I’ve never felt like this before.”

“Let
me go first,” offered Carl as he stepped between the two and led them onto the
helicopter.

Inside
everything looked expensive, from the polished finish on the wall decorations
to the comfortable looking leather seats.

Once
she had secured the door behind Dani, the stewardess spoke again. “Please be seated and please also be
patient. I have been instructed to see
to your needs during our flight, but not to tell you anything about your
host. He wishes to introduce himself to
you all personally and is very much looking forward to meeting you all.”

“Our
host sounds like a generous man,” probed Carl.

The
lady did not answer Carl with anything more than a smile.

“Care
to tell us where we’re going?” Carl concluded sarcastically.

“Please
Mr Blain, you cannot be informed at this time.
Turning the stewardess stared at Elliot and said, “And please Mr Green, don’t
attempt to use any of your gifts during this flight. As you can no doubt tell by now, you can read
nothing of my thoughts. This is due to a
precaution we have in place. I cannot
tell you where we’re flying to exactly, only that our destination is on a
private island owned by your host, so you’ll have no need to fear your
pursuers.” The stewardess turned back to
Carl. “I believe you’re armed, Mr
Blain?”

In
silence, Carl smiled his answer.

“Your
weapons will not be taken from you at any time, your host hopes that this will
inspire you to consider trusting him.
Now I must join the pilot. Please
try to relax during the flight and if you need anything, the call button is
just over there.”

“Thank
you Miss-?”

“Sinclair. And you’re welcome, Miss Le Freau.”

Once
the attendant had left the small cabin and closed the door behind her, the
helicopter lifted into the air and began its flight.

7

“She
was right,” Elliot said through a suppressed yawn. “I couldn’t get a thing from her. It was like something or someone was blocking
me.”

“Still,
you guys are amazing!” Carl said to them.
“You’ve both done nothing but impress the hell out of me today from the
second that we’ve been chased.”

Elliot,
half asleep next to the window absently nodded his thanks for the compliment,
his eyes closing as his whole body relaxed.

Dani,
sat next to Elliot and opposite Carl, gave half a smile and looked at Carl with
a puzzled expression. “Is Elliot
controlling you in his sleep?”

“No!”

“Are
you sure?” Dani asked sarcastically slowly.

“It’s
just, I never knew – I mean, I never saw and fully understood, just what you
guys are capable of. Like I said, both
you guys are impressive.”

“Well… You did get us out of the station. You’re not exactly helpless yourself.”

“Oh
wow!” answered Carl, himself sarcastically. Then with a more serious tone, “From the look
of things since then, I did something that you guys could probably have done
better yourselves!”

“Hmm… maybe,” Dani accepted with a playful
expression. “But doing what we do has a
price. Just look at Elliot now…” Dani gave him a nudge with her elbow, but
Elliot only snored and grunted in response.
“We use up a lot of power when we use our gifts excessively. I was out last night and most of this morning
on the train, Elliot is out now and will be for however long it takes him to
get his mental strength back. You on the
other hand stayed awake all last night, as far as I know and you don’t look
tired now either.”

“I
had no idea you get so tired. Is it
always like this? Even when you used to
operate the Dream Carrier?”

“That’s
the main reason the Dream Carrier wasn’t used as quickly as people
expected. It’s not something we
advertised.” Dani grinned as she gave a
small shrug. “Small price to pay. I look at other people and they seem tired
all the time even without any psychic powers.
It’s not like we’re handicapped by need for sleep or anything, just that
we need to take a nap or two a little bit more often than most people.”

Carl
smiled. “Are you tired now? You really showed off some stuff today,
slowing that car down and keeping us out of trouble back there at the airport.”

“I
am a little,” Dani answered through a yawn.
“Okay, maybe a lot.” Turning to
Elliot, she puffed up his suit coat shoulder like a pillow and then rested her
head against him.

“Sleep
well, Dani. Nothing will touch either of
you while I’m here.”

“Mm…”
was the answer she sighed before drifting into sleep herself.

Carl
Blain had spent many years working for the Central Intelligence Agency. He considered what he did as protecting everyone
both inside and out of his country, but right now that sense of protection was
magnified to new heights. Carl respected
his new friends and was fast growing fond of them. He looked out of the window but could see
nothing of where they were going, the ocean surrounded them and stretched out
for as far as he could see. Carl reached
into his pocket and took out the copy of his father’s death certificate. Still so many unanswered questions. ‘Why was he wanted in a body bag? Who was helping to keep him out of one? How had Dani and Elliot been guided so
perfectly to him? And how was his
father’s death connected to all of this?’ These thoughts and questions
flooded Carl’s mind until he too fell asleep, hoping the answers would come to
him in his dreams.

As
he slept with the mysterious piece of paper still in his hand, the sun began to
set. The three passengers were unaware
that the pilot was taking them in an arc, extending the flight far longer than
necessary in order to hide the location of their destination. The helicopter flew in a semi-circle over the
Atlantic Ocean and then through the gulf of Mexico around to an island in the
Florida Keys. The skilled pilot made his
landing with such smoothness that none of his passengers were woken. Finally, just after the helicopter steeled on
the ground, the flight attendant returned and woke her charges.

Chapter
Six – August 15th 2099,
19:00

1

“Please
follow me,” the attendant stewardess Sinclair invited politely as she opened
the side door and stepped out of the helicopter.

Carl
rose first and carried his bag with him from the helicopter, Dani followed with
Elliot only a step behind her. As Carl
stepped out onto the helipad and into the evening twilight, the first thing
that caught his attention was the beautiful scenery. The helipad was a meter or so from the soft
looking pale sand on the edge of the island and a short walk from a mansion
that looked more like a palace. A wide
pathway lined with palm trees either side led from the pad to the rear of the
house which itself was an island in a sea of neatly cut grass. Powerful lights lit the area around the house
and were just now flickering to life.
The lingering sunset was behind Carl as he walked towards the rear of
the house, taking in each of its details; the large windows for each room, the
flat roof, the neat little flowerbeds surrounding the house itself like a moat
of beauty. The exquisiteness and
calmness around Carl made all the violence and fear of the last twenty four
hours melt away, to be carried off on the soft tropical breeze in the air.

Apart
from the attendant leading the way several steps ahead, Carl could see no one else
on the island. Dropping back he walked
beside Elliot and whispered a question.
“Can you sense anyone else here?”

“Nope. There must be people working in a house this
size, but we’re still a bit far away for me to sense any minds.”

Dani
shook her head. “No we’re not. Whatever is playing with your powers and was
blocking you back there on the helicopter is probably stronger here. Miss Sinclair said they had a precaution,
right?! Whatever it is, it’s bound to be
here with our host.”

“You’re
probably right,” admitted Elliot.

Dani
gripped Elliot’s arm and held him back for a moment. Seeing this, Carl stopped and faced
them.

“What
is it?” Elliot asked.

“I
don’t know, but either it’s losing its effect over me or it’s powerful enough
to trick my clairvoyance, because right now… I feel safe.”

Elliot
shook his head and began walking again. “Well, I can’t even sense you guys anymore. It feels weird. Ever since I was a teenager, I’ve been able
to touch people’s minds. Now, here, not being able to do it… What I
mean is, the whatever-it-is affecting us, is certainly effecting me!”

“Don’t
worry guys. I still have some tricks we
can play if we need to,” Carl said under his breath.

A
few steps later they had reached a pair of French windows that led into the
house and once again, Miss Sinclair was just inside the open doors, holding the
long curtains to one side and waiting to see them in.

As
they entered into the house they found themselves in a giant library. Four large comfortable looking chairs we
arranged into a cross around a low table in the centre of the room.

“Please,
put your bags down here and be seated.
Your host will be right in.”

Carl
dropped his bag by the door and Dani and Elliot followed his example as he led
them to the chairs. As Carl looked back
he saw Miss Sinclair leave through the doors they had entered by, heading back
to the helipad.

“What
now?” Dani nervously asked.

“We
have a fourteen course banquet for free!” Elliot responded enthusiastically, in
an effort to sooth Dani’s nerves.

Carl
had a straight face as he shook his head while glaring at Elliot.

Feeling
slightly better Dani walked forwards and took a seat in one of the large
chairs, shuffling around and enjoying the comfort it offered. The two men remained standing and looked
around the large room at all the many books.
Shelves and shelves of books ranging from old manuscripts in huge
volumes to much slimmer paperbacks that looked almost new.

The
latch on the main door to the wide room, opposite from the French windows,
clicked and the door leading into the rest of the house opened.

Carl
was shocked to see the beautiful woman that he had first followed and
encountered in the Ghost club walk into the room. Her deep blue eyes seemed to sparkle as she
walked to the chair opposite where Dani was sat and stood behind it without
saying a word. She gave a slight smile
as she looked at Dani and then flicked her eyes to Elliot, standing at Dani’s
side. Then the woman narrowed her eyes
and looked seductively at Carl.

Carl
felt his heart quicken and his nerves tense.
Looking away from the hypnotic stare he turned his attention to his
friends, but found both looking intently at the new comer. With a sigh, she looked back at the hypnotists
and slowly shook her head, before flipping her long blonde hair and looking
back at the figure now standing in the doorway.

2

As
the woman had entered the room, the presence of power had revealed itself to
Elliot. The force that had been blocking him appeared – and she was
beautiful. Dressed in a dark blue outfit
that accentuated her toned body, the woman demanded attention as she glided
into the room. Her voice was as clear as
if she had not spoken aloud and the unexpected intrusion into Elliot’s mind
caught him off guard.

“Hello.
I know you can hear me,” intruded the woman’s thoughts as she looked
straight at Elliot. She glanced down at
Dani then observed, “She’s special,” then
she flicked her eyes back to Elliot and thought “both psychics of great power.
Not like him,” she noted as she finally looked to Carl and narrowed
her eyes before concluding, “he has other
uses.”

“Did you bring us here?” Elliot asked
back in his mind.

In
response the woman looked back to the door and standing there now, was a man
who looked slightly older than Carl, dressed in an expensive suit. He smiled and then entered the room at quite
a quick pace.

“Welcome! Please gentlemen, sit, make yourselves
comfortable!” The man’s charisma was
disarming and his calm voice spoke invoking trust. He had a sharp English accent that did not
quite match his playboy appearance, but revealed the educated man for what he
was.

Elliot
smiled back and joined their host in taking a seat so that the two of them were
sitting opposite and next to Dani respectively.
Carl made his way to the last chair but stood behind it only.

Smiling
politely and seated, the man began. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mr Leóni. You are on my island and perfectly safe from
those that pursue you. This,” he looked
up rolling his eyes back to look at the woman now standing over him, “is the
beautiful Rain.”

“Rain,”
Carl found himself whispering.

“Yes,
Mr Blain. I believe you’ve met before…” Mr
Leóni affirmed.

Carl
tore his eyes from the woman to look at his host. “I didn’t get her name then though.”

“So
I’m told,” agreed Mr Leóni with a nod.
“And please accept my apologies for the ‘cloak and dagger’ approach, but
it was imperative that Rain was not discovered.
Unlike our psychic friends,” Mr Leóni gestured to the others, “you do
not feel the psychic blast wave –or tremor as it’s also referred to by the more
powerful psychics– that the others feel.
That seemingly random blast of energy that exists beyond the perception
of most people, and that if predicted correctly, can be used to magnify a
psychic power, or as Rain used it, to send a message out. Of course Rain herself is powerful, hence her
ability to send the message to Elliot specifically and not to every psychic on
the planet! In fact, Rain is the most
powerful psychic I have ever encountered.”

“Stop
it,” Rain said coldly, “you’ll make me blush.”

Mr
Leóni cleared his throat. “Thus, we had
to resort to more conventional methods to bring you to this island, Mr
Blain. Through Rain’s power, she saw to
it that you were united with Miss Le Freau and Mr Green at the soonest
opportunity, and hence guided by them where necessary. I see this was a prudent precaution as the
three of you have arrived together in good health.”

“Well,
not everything is working as it should…” Elliot said tapping his head.

“Indeed. You may have noticed, Mr Green, that your own
telepathic abilities have been blocked since you boarded my helicopter.”

“I
had noticed, yes. I was also wondering
when the un-blocking will take place?”

“We’ll
get to that shortly, Mr Green. Miss Le
Freau too must be wondering the same thing regarding her clairvoyance and the
sensations or images created by it, to say nothing of her as yet unused telekinesis?”

Dani
let out a nervous giggle that was as genuine as her forced smile, but said
nothing in response.

“And
of course,” Mr Leóni raised his open palms, “Mr Blain, you, with no psychic
powers to even have the abilities of a basic hypnotist, are no doubt wondering
about all this? About the piece of paper
I sent to you, regarding your father?”

Carl
tightened his grip on the back of the chair at the thought of his father. It was obvious now that this man knew
something – but what? “Yes. Please, tell me what you know.”

“All
in good time,” Mr Leóni promised.

3

“And
so to business. Are you sure you won’t
have a seat Mr Blain?” Mr Leóni checked.

“Thank
you, but I prefer to stand,” answered Carl stoically.

“Ever
on guard, Mr Blain. That is one of the
reasons I brought you here. First,
please allow me to summarise and explain to you all how you came to be here so
that we can all be clear.”

There
were no reactions or responses, so Mr Leóni proceeded. “You are all wanted people. There are different specific reasons behind
this for each of you, but all of you have one thing in common; you all worked
closely with Romonovski’s Dream Carrier.

“Miss
Le Freau was an operator and like others, working with Mr Green –the head
operator– controlling the Dream Carrier during its twenty four hour a day
operation. Be it either of you or one of
the other hypnotists, there needed to always be one of you present. For each person that used the machine, for
everyone that glimpsed memories of their soul, one of you was there with them,
to instigate the process. And each time,
you witnessed everything the Dream Carrier revealed.” Mr Leóni sat up. “You know everything that they know.”

Elliot
and Dani exchanged simple glances, both in accepting acknowledgement of this
fact.

Mr
Leóni leant forward. “What you don’t know is that some of the things
you have seen have greater meaning than others.”

In
a synchronised coincidence both Dani and Elliot frowned, unable to see relevant
importance.

Mr
Leóni continued. “Mr Blain, you were in
charge of protecting the Dream Carrier, but more importantly –and little known–
you were in charge of protecting the secrets revealed by the Dream
Carrier. It was your job to make sure
that the machine and those who operated it never betrayed their country, never
broke the confidentiality clause in their contracts and spoke of what they
saw. Any evidence that could tempt them
into doing this was swiftly disposed of, often by you personally. You were responsible for the security of the
machine itself and the whole project surrounding the machine. Operators, maintenance staff, Romonovski’s
team and your own security agents.
Everything that happened in that room was under your watchful eye and
when the door to that room was closed for the final time, you were the only one
with full knowledge of every use, of every case, of every incident. You know it all. As you had the identification for both this
last and the last, for each user involved.”
Leóni paused for a moment to allow his words to set in with his three
guests.

“What
you must understand is that this makes you not only very valuable, but very
dangerous. The government wishes to
publicly close the Dream Carrier project.
They have issued statements saying the machine does not work, have had
film crews make documentaries that show the Dream Carrier’s in-accuracy, which
were then aired worldwide. It has been
spread throughout the world media that this machine and its inventor are both
frauds, able to prove nothing of a previous life.”

“But
that’s not true!” cried Elliot, “We know it works! The stories you’re talking about that the
newspapers printed, they said that the Dream Carrier only showed people’s inner
dreams – how they saw themselves. That’s
possible, yeah sure – but the scientists looked up who these people were in
history during the testing stages. They
found almost every single person that the test subjects went back to, almost
every single birth or death certificate.
They had a ninety eight percent match with their data! But none of this was ever mentioned and made
open to the public masses. The fact
that these people were describing actual events in previous lives that could be
proved, was never mentioned in the press.”

Mr
Leóni was smiling. “Yes Mr Green, you’re
right. There is a reason for this and if
you ask Mr Blain, I’m sure he’ll tell you.”

Both
Elliot and Dani looked to Carl for an answer.

Carl
let out a deep breath and then spoke.
“They shut the project down because
it worked. It worked so well that the government decided
it was too much of a waste letting just anybody use it. When you think of all the first listed nobodies
that used that thing and remembered that in their last life, they were still a
nobody – that meant nothing. But, now
and then, someone of a previously life led us to information that was marked as
classified. Data that perhaps revealed
things and could confirm the sort of things that could cause havoc. Take those and all the hassle the Death Bill
caused and the never ending religious debates.”
Carl sighed. “It made more sense for
the government to deny the machine ever worked and close it down. Then of course those with power would have a
free reign to use the Dream Carrier whenever they wanted, behind everyone’s
back.” Carl waved a pointing finger
between Dani and Elliot. “You guys of
course would have been replaced by another, single operator, someone who
couldn’t be previously connected with the project. The whole thing was taken off the official
budget, codenamed and put under ‘special operations’ on a need to know
basis.” Carl stopped and looked
frustrated, in disgust of his revelation.

“So
how do you know all this?” Elliot enquired.

“They
offered me a job. They wanted me to stay
on board and move into the Black Ops division with the new project and continue
what I was doing.” Carl shook his head. “But I’m not one of them and I don’t like the
way they do things. So I told them ‘no’,
got suspended and the next thing I know I’m a target.”

“But
why didn’t they tell us?” asked
Dani.

“And
why didn’t they want us?!”
investigated Elliot.

Still
disgusted in the tone of his voice, Carl answered. “I told you; need to know. No one in the project knows apart from me and
the people that separately made the decision.
As far as the world knows, the Dream Carrier is a fraud-”

“And
we’re branded as liars!” Dani interrupted angrily.

Carl
looked away from her angry eyes, feeling a sense of responsibility for the
actions he had carried out in silence.

“You
could have come forward! You could have
told them it worked!” Dani cried as she stood.

“No
Dani,” soothed Elliot as he stood up to catch her. “He couldn’t.
Could you, Carl?”

“They
plan on executing me now anyway,” Carl affirmed.

4

Mr
Leóni’s precise English accent cut through the atmosphere and shattered the
lingering silence. “And that, my friends,
is what brings us to where we are now.
They don’t want to risk any
loose ends, but rather they want everyone
who’s been involved with the project silenced, anyone involved with the machine, snuffed out.”

“But
that’s hundreds of people! They can’t
keep the people that used the machine from talking!” cried Elliot.

“No
Mr Green, they cannot,” agreed Mr Leóni.
“But with all the press and documentaries reporting the machine does not
work, even the people that actually used the Dream Carrier have had their
doubts. Those experienced wondering, ‘Did it really work?’”

Mr
Leóni pressed on. “Only those users that
stand adamant in their experience, their belief in reincarnations to their
revealed former life, seek out to make others believe their occurrence. Religions, as well as government agencies,
will not allow believers, those instead being sought out to be silenced.”

Mr
Leóni concluded. “Only a small
percentage of people that used the machine remain, and the majority of the
general public will always have doubts and be against them, the demising
project of the Dream Carrier. The only
one that truly knows without any doubts, is Romonovski, whom as you know
disappeared.”

Carl
let out an exasperated sigh as he thought the answer to his question. “That’s all true, but why kill us?”

“Mr
Blain,” Mr Leóni spoke slowly in broken syllables, “you know better than most
the difficulties loose ends can cause. On
the other hand you know everything about that project. Everything! With your refusal to switch sides as it were,
you could have become a very dangerous liability for your employer.” Mr Leóni then left Carl to confirm his
suspicion.

Carl’s
suspicion ignited.

“But
what about us,” Elliot asked. “Couldn’t
they just fire us? Tell us not to say
anything! Threaten us with jail!?”

“I’m
afraid not, Mr Green. Rain?” Mr Leóni
invited.

Rain
walked casually over to one of the many book shelves and removed a folder with file
sleeves. When she returned she handed
the folder to Elliot and purred, “Randomly open to one of those tabs.”

Doing
as he was instructed, Elliot opened the file and saw a picture of a middle aged
woman. Not recognising her, he shook his
head. “Angela Knowles?”

Rain
looked down. “That is one of the users
handled by Miss Le Freau, in the early stages of project selection. You may not remember her as she is an
ordinary member of the public in this life.
However, the Dream Carrier revealed her to be Mr Chao Mitsurugi in her
last life. Mitsurugi died over forty
years ago in an explosion that took his life.
The Dream Carrier showed the explosion was caused by a new chemical fuel
he was working on at that time that could be used in many functions to remove
dependency on foreign oil. As I said, Angela
Knowles as she’s known in this life has since disappeared,” Rain
concluded.

“And
of course, I’m sure you can deduce who arranged for that disappearance,” came
the crisp English accent.

“The
same people that want to make us disappear,” Elliot answered in a
monotone.

“Correct,
Mr Green,” confirmed Mr Leóni, “and in more ways than one. You see while Mr Blain has been dodging
bullets and hit squad agents, you and Miss Le Freau have only been dodging one
man at a time each, whom have yet to point a gun at either of you. Haven’t you wondered why?”

“Not
really,” Elliot responded. “I was kinda
in the line of fire when that last guy was aiming at the car we was in.”

“Believe
me, Mr Green, you and Miss Le Freau are wanted alive.”

“But
the message I got?!” Elliot pointed out.

Mr
Leóni smiled. “What better way to ensure
your co-operation in coming here than to have you in fear of your life. I simply asked Rain to exaggerate the
situation.”

“But
what about me?” asked Dani.

“Ah,
Miss Le Freau. I should imagine your
fate will be that of the other operators.
They’ll lock you away and use you to either force co-operation from Mr
Green or to simply replace him, should he refuse to co-operate at all. As Mr Blain said, a new operator would be
required who could not be linked with the previous operation, but powerful
hypnotists are not that easy to come by.
So, why not simply kidnap the ones that have already been trained as
operators and branded as liars by the press?
Who is going to notice if these publicly shamed, often disliked and not
to mention generally feared people just disappear?”

“Oh
come on! Someone would notice!” cried Dani.

“Would
they?” questioned Elliot quietly.
“Really?”

“Yes!”
Dani argued. “Maybe you have lots of
friends and family, but mine are back in France. Apart from you and the other operators, I
don’t really have any friends, at least none that would worry if I wasn’t
around anymore. I didn’t have much of a
social life before working on the Dream Carrier project, but working shifts
through the night or stupid hours in the day pretty much destroyed what little
I had.”

Dani’s
words seemed to hit a nerve with Elliot as he thought about his own life. In the blink of an eye he considered his
friends and like Dani, he realised that all of his true friends were like him,
gifted psychics that had been working on the project, the only people he really
saw on a regular basis. His other
friends were more in the category of ‘people he knew’ as opposed to actual
friends, not close enough to him that they would worry about his
disappearance. His cousin would of
course care and be worried, but aside from a single cousin, he was the only
member of his family alive and that he barely spoke to, it suddenly occurred to
him that Dani might not be that hard to silence either.

“That’s
right Elliot,” judged Rain. Somehow
without him realising it, Rain had managed to stand very close to him. “How hard do you think it would be? Your cousin files a missing person’s report,
and then that report would just disappear and her along with it. The people you’re dealing with are at the top
of the food chain. They’re the villains
that feature in action movies, the bad guys that lurk in conspiracy stories. They actually do exist and they’re
after you.”

Mr
Leóni cleared his throat. “Careful Rain,
don’t frighten our guests!” Mr Leóni
turned his focus. “Let me once again
reassure you that you’re safe here. And
Mr Green, there’s no need to worry about your cousin… at least not if you agree to help me.”

At
these words Elliot, Carl and Dani stared directly into Mr Leóni’s eyes.

5

“Help
you? Help you do what?!” Elliot questioned.

The
jolly, charismatic attitude Mr Leóni had portrayed up to this point faded and a
business-like mood took its place. “We
can all agree that the three of you are in danger. Do any of you dispute that fact?”

Silence
answered the issue.

“If
any of you would like to take your chances with the Special Operations agents
that have been despatched to deal with you in various ways, please speak
now. My helicopter will return you to
Hialeah.”

Again
no one gave retort.

“Excellent. I have a plan that will free you from the
long arm of power that is reaching out for you.
Although complicated in its execution, my plan itself is simple. I wish to build my own Dream Carrier and will
once more bring it into the publics’ eye, proving once and for all that
Romonovski’s invention works. Of course
this would clear the names of the hypnotist operators and bring you back to the
publics’ attention also. Mr Blain could
then come forward and join you in freedom.
Once in the public eye, you would be safe from kidnap or assassination
as this would cause attention to the Special Operations division that now have
control of the Dream Carrier, attention they do not want and will be looking to
avoid when the investigation starts as to why the original Dream Carrier was
thought to be a fraud. To conclude, you
will be safe as any attempts on you will result in police and possibly federal
involvement.”

Elliot’s
mouth opened but before he spoke, Mr Leóni raised a hand for prolonged
silence. Elliot’s mouth shut.

“The
discrete division now in possession of Romonovski’s invention do not share their
toys, as Mr Blain can confirm, and will not want any outside intervention with
their project. Whatever excuses that
they provide to the world media for the original ‘failure’,” Mr Leóni said
quoting the air with bending fingers, “I can guarantee will be abandoned. Those in command will not be able to touch
you without dooming themselves, as any attempts on you will be admitting to the
world that they have been and are hiding something. Possibly even complete exposure. That effectual admission would mean
investigation by others, a lack of control over the situation or the simple co-operation
amongst international meetings and agreements.”

Carl
scratched his shaded chin while thinking of the Dream Carrier. “Project revealed equals project closed, in
their world.”

“Precisely,”
Mr Leóni confirmed. “They’ll be anxious
to avoid that at any cost, and thus you would be free. Obviously if you begin telling the world
about secrets revealed to you during the operation of the first Dream Carrier,
the cost of your silence will outweigh the risk of your freedom. You would be effectively committing
suicide.”

“So
if we manage to get another Dream Carrier, stand our ground, but don’t push
back, we’ll be okay?” Dani asked somewhat uncertain.

“Yes,”
Mr Leóni confirmed.

“Well
I wasn’t planning on doing any talk-shows to save us,” joked Elliot.

Mr
Leóni turned. “Can I take that to mean
you are interested, Mr Green?”

“You
can, Sir,” Elliot responded with a posh tone.

With
a look to Carl Rain asked, “What about you?”

Dani
had thought for a moment then prior to Carl’s response, asked urgently “What
about the other operators?”

“Yeah,
Dani’s right – what about the others?” Elliot echoed.

Leóni
looked away from the enquiring eyes of the psychics. “I’m afraid I do not know what will happen to
them. Most of them have already been
brought in and are in the custody of the Special Operations division. I cannot deduce the location of any others
that may have slipped through the net.”

“It
is difficult to say. Although a safe
assumption, one can never be certain with these people. If the situation is right and the people they
have are valuable enough, they may well try to go into business, to negotiate
or even start their own rogue operation via a different path.”

Finally
Carl gave his input. “Mr Leóni is right,”
Carl confirmed, but seemingly for his own benefit rather than to comfort the
others. “If you two are too dangerous to
apprehend then it’s not much of a step from keeping the other operators’ securely
held. I’d imagine the missing people
would be forced to sign a few things, you know, fed some bullshit about a
secret project, not allowed to mention that they’ve been in ‘debriefing’ for
however long and then released. Guys
holding them would just get re-assigned.”

“It
sounds logical to me,” Elliot hoped as he looked from Carl to Dani.

Dani
frowned and still looked uncertain.

“I
guess I don’t have a anything to lose, I’m in,” Carl announced. “But what about the information you have
regarding my father?”

“I’m
sorry to frustrate you, Mr Blain, but I cannot reveal anything at this
stage.”

“Why
not?”

“Once
you have completed the task I have for you, I will tell you everything.”

Carl
now joined Dani in frowning but did not pursue the matter.

“Miss
Le Freau, have you made a decision?”

“I
don’t know. Could I have some time to
think about it?”

“What’s
there to thing about?” Elliot asked in surprise. “We help this man, it sets us free.”

“I’d
just like some time to weigh up all the options, if that’s okay.”

Mr
Leóni swiftly prevented Elliot from further talk. “Of course, Miss Le Freau. Please, I have prepared guest rooms for you
all and would be honoured if you would spend the night. I will expect your decision over breakfast
tomorrow morning.”

“Okay,”
Dani thanked.

“Perhaps
the details of my plan or more precisely, what your part in it will be will aid
you in your decision making. In order to
build my own Dream Carrier I will of course need a great many things. It may surprise you to know that I have
already acquired items such as engineers, technical staff and now thanks to
Elliot of course, a second operator. Having
had access to all parts for the machine’s structure, I have constructed a basic
model, but what I don’t have are the exact
plans. As such my model does not work
correctly. What I need you to do is get
those plans for me.”

Carl
grunted out a laugh. “I take it you know
where those plans are?”

“I
do indeed, Mr Blain. They are stored in
a secure file in the Special Operations database, all files having been
transferred from your own branch of the CIA’s computers. Here are the access codes,” said Mr Leóni as
he produced a small universal serial bus.
“My source that provided these codes is unable to retrieve the
information I need to remove it from the premises without exposure. There are simply too many checks in
place. The only way to get the plans is
to steal them via a copy, as to ensure safety the data storage is one hundred
percent wireless free. Of course, if
used the data store will be logged, if not alarmed which will trigger your
leaving the room, much less the building.”

Carl
had an amused smile on his face. “You
want us to break into the Black Ops building, get access into their computer
from somewhere-”

“Their
main computer control room is the only access point,” interjected Mr Leóni to
ascertain the ‘somewhere’.

“Right,”
Carl proceeded, “get access from their main control room, download or copy or
whatever the plans and then get out of the building and bring the plans back to
you?”

“Correct,”
Mr Leóni answered with a nod.

Carl
let out a deep breath, looked at the hypnotists and nodded. “You know, from what I’ve seen, I think we
could do it.”

“Excellent
attitude Mr Blain, only I think you’ll find your chances for success are much
better than you think, that is, if Mr Green and
Miss Le Freau both agree to help you.”

“I’m
still in,” Elliot confirmed.

“That
just leaves you Dani… What do you
think?”

Dani
looked at Carl for a long moment before she looked at each person in the room,
her face unreadable. “If it’s okay, I’d
still like tonight to make up my mind.”

“Certainly
Miss Le Freau.” Mr Leóni rose as he
spoke and walked towards the door. “I
wish you all a good night’s sleep and will see you on the morrow.”

Elliot
nodded, his unseen acknowledgement as Mr Leóni turned and left the room.

Rain
moved slowly towards the door while still facing the others. “If you’ll get your bags I’ll show you where
you’re sleeping.”

6

Carl
walked out of the room beside Rain while Dani and Elliot hung back and followed
a few paces behind.

“What
is the matter with you!” demanded Elliot in a loud whisper.

“You
still can’t use your telepathy, can you?” Dani checked.

“What
has that got to do with it!?”

“Just
answer me,” asked Dani softly.

Elliot
frowned and checked. “No, I’m still
being blocked.”

“You’re
being blocked by her,” Dani nodded towards Rain. “My clairvoyance is like an enhanced natural
instinct, right? Not a simply blocked gift?”

Elliot
nodded. “Yeah.”

“I
have a really bad feeling about that Leóni guy and about her too!” stated
Dani.

“How
do you know you’re not just being paranoid?” Elliot whispered angrily.

In
reply Dani looked coldly at Elliot.
“Stop being so naive! Do you
really think Leóni is helping us? Do you
honestly believe that whatever he wants us to do to help him is going to help
us? He’s sitting at home, coaxing us to
get him that required data on a tiny little USB stick, but he’s not getting it
himself!”

Elliot
lost his crossness around Dani.
Listening to her, he accepted her explanation, and he understood the one
thing he had not considered; ‘why was
Leóni planning to send others for him?’
“But what about Carl? He seems to
think this is a good idea,” reminded Elliot.

“Exactly
my point,” cried Dani, still whispering.
“Look at him cosying up to her!”

Elliot
looked at Carl and Rain as she gave a laugh and stroked a hand down one of
Carl’s arms as they climbed stairs to the bedrooms.

“You
see! How do we know Carl isn’t in on
this with them, consciously or not!”

Elliot
had no answer and went quietly into thought.
He had checked Carl’s mind back on the train, but only briefly and not
since then. Now with the block on his
powers in place, he couldn’t confirm anything about Carl.

Rain
led them up a large staircase and along a well-lit and beautifully decorated
hall. Swaying her hair around she
stopped between two doors and turned back to Dani and Elliot. Both smiled falsely in an attempt at
innocence.

“These
are your rooms. Breakfast will be
downstairs tomorrow at eight o’clock sharp, don’t be late.” Rain all but sung as she led Carl further down
the hallway and around a corner.

Elliot
opened his room door, threw in his bag and then closed the door again. He turned and followed Dani into her room
closing the door behind him.

The
room itself was quite large and dominated by a large bed against its wall
centre, a headboard beneath the large windows.
A television screen was attached to the wall opposite the bed and had a
tiny remote for multiple purposes in the room.

Ignoring
the remote Dani turned on a small lamp by the bed and then drew the
curtains. Elliot pulled a chair near to
the bed and sat down at the same time as Dani flopped onto her bed.

“I
know he’s not with them,” Elliot began.
“Before we arrived here I’d searched his mind. There wasn’t even a trace of deceit.”

“Are
you sure? Until this afternoon you
didn’t know you could have your power blocked, how do you know that Carl
doesn’t know a way of tricking you?”

“Well
what about you – do you have any bad feelings about Carl,” Elliot asked.

Dani
curled her lips in thought. “No. In fact, I normally feel safe when he’s
near.”

“Well
then what are you arguing about!?”

“THEM!”
Dani cried with emphasis. “There’s
something not right about either one of them.”

Elliot
sighed. “Okay. Say you’re right and you have bad feelings
around you. Even so, Mr Leóni talked
about our freedom. There’s simply no
reason to hurt us if we succeed. What
have you got to lose by coming with Carl and I?”

Dani’s
eyes fell to the bed quilt.

To
sooth Elliot added, “You know that I’ll never let anything happen to you and
you said yourself you feel safe when Carl’s around.”

Dani’s
eyes rose. “I’m just not sure that
helping Leóni is the right thing to do.”

Elliot
puffed his lips. “And if you don’t help
him, you’re on your own. You’re leaving
Carl and I to carry out his plan by just ourselves, as you know Rain sticks to
her boss like his number one fan. With
your help, we could probably do what he wants us to.” Elliot looked deeply into Dani’s eyes and
found that even with the block on his telepathy he knew what she was
thinking. “I’m scared too. But Carl thinks we can do this.”

Dani
stared back at Elliot, looking into his blue eyes for the confidence she knew
they both needed. “Alright. I’ll help.”

Elliot
sprang forward out of his chair and hugged his arms around Dani’s shoulders. “Great!”

With
Dani wrapping her arms around and under his, the two of them sat in an embrace,
enjoying the comfort that a warm hug from someone you care about can
provide.

Without
warning, a psychic wave pulsed through the air and Elliot shivered falling back
out of Dani’s arms, but she held onto him tightly and kept him pressed to
her.

“That
was a nasty one,” Dani calmed into his ear.
“Are you okay?”

Elliot
only nodded.

“You
know, I’ve been wondering about this mental block – have you tried breaking
through it?” asked Dani.

“Huh? Um, no,” Elliot muttered.

Dani
gently released him away from her. “You’re one of the most powerful hypnotists in
the world. You have telepathic power
that’s off the chart. So I’m wondering
how Rain can block you so easily, yet she seems to have no power over my
clairvoyance instincts.”

“Well,
I’m not that strong. You’re way stronger
than I’ll ever be – just look at the way her psychic blasts barely effect you
and then how she can effect me.”

Elliot
sat down on the floor and folded his arms across his chest. He smiled at Dani before he closed his eyes
and went into a trance-like state.
Elliot concentrated on his thoughts.
Slowly he built up power, expanding his mind, forcing his awareness
outwards, pushing against the block that smothered his mind like
quicksand. He felt resistance but pushed
harder. He started sending out barrages
of thought attacking the block that was holding his mind in place. Suddenly he caught a glimmer of thought from
Carl and heard the words “What is it?”
asked in Carl’s mind.

A
feminine voice that was not his own answered, "Nothing,” but Elliot knew this was a lie. Elliot could feel a mind connected to his
own, the mind subduing his and he knew that it was Rain. With everything he had, Elliot exploded his thoughts
outwards like a detonating bomb in his mind and at once the block was gone,
shattered into pieces. Elliot could feel
Rain on the other side of the floor in her room, Carl with her.

7

Carl
looked at Rain and blinked slowly. As if
suddenly waking up from a dream, he snatched his hands back from Rain’s slim hips. She stepped forwards to brush herself up
against him and leaned in to continue kissing him, but Carl jolted his head
away from hers. At that moment, the full
force of Elliot’s mental escape broke through and burst out of Rain causing her
to yelp. Staggering backwards, Rain
covered her eyes and forehead with her hands before she collapsed onto the
bed.

Now
completely free from her telepathic powers, Carl’s anger rose within him,
usurping the sexual arousal that had dominated his thoughts only moments
ago. “Bitch!” he cursed quietly as he
scooped up his bag and slammed her door shut behind him on his way out of her
room. Carl would gladly have slept with
her, such a beautiful and sexy seductress, but not like this. She had used her mind, her own powerful
hypnotism to lead him to her room. Rain
had put a spell on him and using her charms and good looks to enhance her
natural power, she had sought to bring Carl completely under her control. The fact that she had used her psychic gifts
on Carl made it clear to him that she wanted only one thing from seducing him –
and that was not the same thing that he had wanted. She had tried to gain Carl as her loyal ally,
someone she could control, and at that moment Carl neither wanted or cared
why. Carl would not be used by anyone
and he hated that he had been so weak.
As he stalked off down the corridor back to Elliot and Dani’s rooms he
cursed himself for not having seen through Rain’s deception before right away.

8

“I
did it!” Elliot cried with a smile forming on his face.

“Yay!”
cheered Dani as she flung herself down into his arms.

A
moment later Carl burst through the door and threw his bag down. “She only had to ask!”

Dani
climbed off of Elliot and to her feet.
“We’ve both broken the block that Rain had on us!”

“Great,”
Carl replied with a small measure of sarcasm.
“Now tell me what the hell is going on!”

Elliot,
now on his feet answered. “I snapped the
hold she had, the block Rain had put on my mind. While I was doing it I sensed what she wanted
to do. She wanted to trick you into
falling in love with her, so that when the time came you’d be loyal to her –and
therefore Leóni– over us. They thought
if she seduced you then they could use you against us if they wanted to.”

“Why?!”
Carl growled.

Elliot
shook his head. “I don’t know. Her thoughts were too well controlled. I could sense what her objective was with
you, but I couldn’t see the big picture.”

Carl
let out a sigh. Flicking his eyes to
Dani he asked, “You in?”

She
nodded.

“Good. Level playing field.”

“You’re
still going through with his plan?” Elliot asked in mild surprise about Leóni’s
plan.

“Damn
right I am. He knows what happened to my
father… And if I don’t, I’ll be running
from those Black Ops bastards for the rest of my numbered days.”

“You
don’t think we should get out of here right now?!”

Carl
did not answer with his voice, instead allowing the steeled look in his eyes to
answer for him.

Elliot
looked at Dani and saw that now she had made up her mind she was not going to
change it. “Alright then,” Elliot
agreed. “We’re all in. We do this for Leóni, clear ourselves and the
second we’re safe from those Black Ops guys or that Special Operations building,
we get out of here.”

9

Rain
opened the door to Mr Leóni’s study and walked in to face him at his desk. The older man looked up from his book and was
caught off guard by her scruffy appearance.
Rain’s hair was not in its usual combed-perfectly, straight state and
she seemed slightly out of breath.

With
a suspicious look on his face, Leóni waited for her to explain herself.

“It
didn’t work. I was just about to seduce
Blain entirely, when Green broke my block on him, on them all.”

“What
happened?” Mr Leóni demanded.

“Blain!
He figured out what was going on and
left. None of them knew I had created
the block before and they didn’t even try to break it when they arrived. But I think I overestimated with Dani, saw it
as too similarly to Green’s powers, and I misfired.”

Mr
Leóni looked amused. “No matter. The next time I see them you’ll be
there. You can hold off Green for the
short time we’re having breakfast, then they’ll be on their way. The girl is of no real importance, it’s Green
I need. Blain is only there to make sure
he’s safe, but in all likelihood, I suspect Green needs someone else’s
protection about as much as Romonovski needs someone else’s Dream Carrier –
wherever he is.”

Rain
hesitated. “There’s something
else…”

“Yes,
go on?”

“Blain. He’s more likely to show loyalty to the other
two than us, now that he’s aware of what I tried to do. This could prove… tricky when the time comes
to–”

“A
disappointment to be sure,” Leóni interrupted, “but I still have the
information about his father. Tomorrow I
want you to let it slip in your mind that his father, Edward Blain, was an
employee of my father. That
should keep him interested once Green tells him what you inadvertently revealed.”

Rain
smiled and Leóni leaned forwards over the desk and kissed her. She returned the long kiss but with less
passion and then left knowing he would soon join her.

Chapter
Seven – August 16th 2099, 10:11

1

Carl
sat on the train and ran through the points of the infiltration plan that Leóni
had told them, though thoughts of his father in the Leóni family employment
interrupted him. He wished that Elliot
had been able to learn more. Elliot was
the one that had destroyed the mental barrier Rain had suspiciously raised, and
in so doing, had explored Rain’s thoughts during breakfast and heard of Carl’s
father. As they had left earlier this
morning, Elliot had revealed Rain’s thought to him, making Carl all the more dubious
of their ‘employer’ and his distrustful assistant.

In
an effort of mental discipline Carl forced the thoughts of his father from his
mind and concentrated on the mission he was about to undertake. He looked to Dani and Elliot sitting opposite
him, on the opposite of their train table, and even without a psychic fibre in
his body, he could feel the nervous anticipation emanating from both of
them. Carl guessed from the look on
Elliot’s face and the heavy gulp shown in his throat, that he sought to mask
his apprehension. Next to him, Dani’s
slightly wider eyes were simple for Carl to detect her anxiety.

Leaving
them in peace, Carl thought about the plan given to them. The infiltration plan started with the return
to the place they had run from, a return to the Black Ops Head Quarters in
Washington DC. The building that Dani
feared so much and that both she and Elliot had come so close to entering, was
now their destination. Leóni had strategized
that the search being conducted for the three of them would be spreading away
from their destination – no one would be looking for them travelling back towards
the Special Operations main building.
Carl had agreed and the idea was logical enough that Dani and Elliot
went along with it. So, the three had
been taken back to Miami Station and boarded a train heading back along the
route they had arrived by. They had just
under nine hours before they would arrive in Washington and then make their way
to the Black Ops building – the new home of the Dream Carrier project. They were due to get there that night, or
more precisely the early hours of the following morning, with the plan that
they could break into the building and steal the schematics they needed during
the quieter hours of the night. The
finer details of the plan were left to Carl to improvise as they went along,
depending on the situation. He had the
best first-hand knowledge of the building and was the only trained member of
the three of them in such matters of espionage.
This suited him fine as in Carl’s opinion, the less they had to trust
Leóni, the better.

Carl’s
mind began to wonder into his past and the missions like this that he had been
on. Before he’d always had back-up,
whether it was in the form of the other agents on his team or the support at
the end of his wrist communicator. But
now, he had two civilians. Admittedly,
Carl had seen the two take care of themselves and had been impressed, but that
had been in moments of need when they were running scared. This time they were heading into the lion’s
den and Carl worried if they would be all right under the added pressure of
moving toward the threat instead of running away from it. Elliot seemed strong enough, after all he had
volunteered straight away. But
Dani… She was still young and had been
afraid up to this point, seeming to go along with what he and Elliot had
thought best.

Carl
let out a sigh as he watched the two of them whispering quietly in a
light–hearted chit–chat, trying to relieve their nerves. It was then that Carl noticed the ring on
Elliot’s finger. “Married?” he asked of
Elliot.

Elliot
looked away from Dani and down at the ring, absently twisting it around on his
finger.

“I
don’t remember reading anything about a family on your record,” Carl
continued.

Looking
up at him Elliot answered. “She’d only
be listed as one word – deceased.”

“Oh… I’m sorry.”

“That’s
okay, it happened a while ago now.”
Silence followed Elliot’s voice and lingered for several moments before
he spoke again. “I used to wonder, if I
stayed working with the Dream Carrier for long enough, that maybe one day I’d
get to find out who Angela became in her next life.”

Dani
rubbed Elliot’s shoulder and then took his hand in both of hers. “Wherever she is, whoever she’s become, I’m
sure that in her soul she still carries her feelings, her love for you.”

Elliot
smiled at these kind words and rested his head on top of Dani’s, sitting with
her in comforting silence.

Carl closed his
eyes and in his mind he saw Rain. She
looked so beautiful, her blue eyes so captivating. Was she really a hypnotist or was it her eyes
that cast the spell on him? Her smooth
complexion and her long hair combined with her gorgeous body meant that men
like Carl were all too easy for her to leave an impression upon. Carl could still feel himself being attracted
to her, even after what she had tried to do to him, the way she had tried to
use him. The kiss they had shared two
nights ago still lingered in his mind.
There had been something sensual about it, some sort of extra
connection. Had she been using her
hypnotic powers even then? He would
never know.

His
thoughts changed direction and Carl saw the Dream Carrier in his mind, the
large machine that he had seen so many times, but had never actually used. Carl knew it worked, but there was just
something about it, something he could not believe in and could not bring himself
to accept. It wasn’t fear, but more the
acceptance of mystery and of putting trust in faith. Carl liked not knowing anything but who he
was now. He didn’t want to know who he
had been in a past life as he thought that memories could not change a person. The philosophical question; ‘If you lost
your memory, would you still be the same person?’ was a conundrum that had fascinated Carl in his earlier years
at the agency. Carl related the question
to the possibility that, in his line of work he may have to shoot and kill
someone, and he had wondered if he were to have no memory of this, would that
make it easier to do?

When
the Dream Carrier had come into his life, Carl did not want to know about his
previous existence. What if this was not
the first time he had been killing people –criminals or not– but people none
the less, lives that had ended by his hand. What if this wasn’t the first time? What if, throughout his incarnations, he had
always been a killer in one form or another?
If the answer provided by the Dream Carrier to his conundrum had been ‘yes’ then he did not want to risk to see
what had gone on before. No, to Carl the
mystery of not knowing felt better. The
possibility that in his last life he had been a good and kind person, and had
never killed someone was a much nicer prospect.
Reality was cold and miserable enough without finding out that it had
always been like this for him, that the memories of each life were essentially
the same, but happening in a different time and with different people was too
unbearable to contemplate.

“Along
the winding tracks we travel, we know not where they lead…”

Dani
smiled at Elliot’s poetic outburst and then added her own verse. “But I don’t care, I’m with my friends and
they are all I need.”

Now
even Carl’s mood lightened as he opened his eyes and smiled back at the pair
opposite, admiring their courage, touched by their affectionate rhyme.

2

The
train journey lasted through the day and passed them into the evening. The basic freshness machines applied to their
standard daily clothing had been immaculately sanitized, as was the casually standard
procedure for most public and private locations for all clothing. Invented back in the year 2075, the equivalent
of a brief yet powerful blast of air condition would yield one hundred percent
of most fabric cleanliness, whether clothed or not.

After
recently cleansed within their train compartment, the three were hungry so moved
to the train dining car and ate together. As usual, Elliot started conversation.

“This
is quite good,” Elliot stated as he chewed on his chicken dinner.

Dani
looked at him and shook her head. “How
can you eat anything that used to be alive?!”

Elliot
looked down at Dani’s half-eaten jacket potato covered in melted cheese and
gave his retort. “Well, technically that
potato was alive, just not in the same way as my chicken. Besides, it’s not like they tortured it to
death.”

“Oh
please, as if you can make that comparison.
Your chicken and my potato have about as much in common as some pet dog carrying
another creature’s bone.”

Carl
barely smiled at Dani’s creative comparison.

“I
mean,” continued Dani, “would you compare those to one another?”

“I’ve
seen the two mixed before,” Elliot admitted from his own observation.

Dani
threw down her fork and smacked Elliot’s arm.
Giving him her most disapproving scowl she let out a loud breath and
then went back to her meal.

Elliot
winked at Carl and smiled, showing that he knew exactly how to antagonise Dani
in a playful way that she wouldn’t be able to resist.

Carl
got the impression that this was not the first time that this debate had been
raised and could not help being amused by the two. “You’re a vegetarian then,” Carl said as more
of a statement than a question, and as he spoke he took a big bite out of his
beef burger.

Now
it was Elliot’s turn to hold back his smiling as Carl got the same disapproving
glare that Dani had shot at Elliot only moments ago.

“If
animals could talk you wouldn’t be eating them!”

“Sure
I would,” replied Carl. “They wouldn’t
be talking when they were on my plate, would they?! Then again, it might make for some
interesting conversations during those lonely nights in front of the TV.”

For
a moment Dani just sat and stared at Carl, undecided as to if he was joking or
not. Then making her decision she
threatened, “You are so lucky you’re out of smacking distance,” in a
controlled and slightly exaggerated fury.

“Yup,”
agreed Elliot with a nod.

“And
you can keep quiet!” Dani cried as she feigned a stab at Elliot with her
fork.

Smiling,
Carl looked out of the window and like the scenery, dinner passed quickly.

3

The
night had arrived with them back in their small train compartment. The lights were only dim –the way Dani liked
them– as the three began finalising their plans for the mission. Nerves still had not taken a strong hold on
either Dani or Elliot, both still managing themselves well, and Carl was still
at a loss to explain why. Although he was
not aware, it was actually his own confidence that was feeding the two
psychics. Carl’s strength and
determination was easy for them to pick up on, and rubbed off on them just as
easily.

Not
one to ruin a good thing, Carl did not ask the reason for their confidence,
instead he only hoped that it lasted until all of this was done. “The station is only a mile away from the
building we need to get to. We won’t
bother trying to get a cab at such a late hour, we’ll just walk. There should be only a few people around at
that time and hopefully no one who’ll recognise us when we get to the
building. You’re both alright with the
plan for getting in?”

“Yes,”
answered Elliot as Dani nodded her agreement.

“You’re
sure you can both do it?” Carl checked.

Both
nodded.

“Good. Once we’re inside, I’m reasonably certain I
know where the control room is. The only
way we could have a problem is if they’ve moved the room –which is highly
unlikely. If we get that far, then
getting into the control room shouldn’t be half as difficult as getting in
through the front door would have been.”

“That’s
right. The only problem I see –assuming
that we get in and out okay– is getting back to Leóni. He said he’d have someone waiting to pick us
up, but I don’t see how we can escape in ‘someone waiting to pick us up’… Still he seemed confident enough. I don’t trust him –as I know neither of you
do either– but he’d have been wasting his time and money sending us back to do
this, promising an escape route and then not delivering.”

“His
information has been good up to now,” Elliot reminded them. “We have no reason to believe he’d be setting
us up to be caught by the Black Ops guys.
Like you say, he’s got nothing to gain by that. Why help us in the first place?”

“Exactly,”
agreed Carl.

“I
don’t trust him,” Dani said firmly.

“None
of us do, Dani. But he’s the best chance
we’ve got to be in the clear,” reminded Carl.

Dani
sighed. “I know. I don’t want to be running for the rest of my
life either. It’s just, well, not that I
have a really bad feeling or
anything, but… I wouldn’t do this if you
guys hadn’t both agreed to it.”

“It’s
alright, Dani,” said Elliot in a soothing voice. “Leóni – none of us trust. But Carl – we can trust, right?”

“Absolutely,”
Carl confirmed. “I’ve done this dozens
of times and I’m sure we’ll be okay, okay?”

Dani
leaned into a one armed hug from Elliot and nodded her consent.

“Okay,”
Carl concluded, “only another hour or so and we’ll be there. Remember, stay close to me. If anything goes wrong, we use the cover
story to buy time.”

“Got
it,” Elliot affirmed.

An
hour later, the three figures slipped quietly off of the train and out of the
station. Of the few late night
travellers around, no one would remember seeing them, Elliot made sure they
were invisible to the minds and memories of those they encountered, and every
single camera had temporarily blacked out via Dani.

4

A
brisk walk saw the three figures cover the mile to the Black Ops building in
only a short time.

Dani
felt uneasy as she stood in the same spot she had been standing in days ago,
when she had come here for her ‘debriefing’.
This time Elliot would not be making her jump and Carl’s presence helped
to ease the tension she felt.

“Okay. Here’s where the fun begins,” humoured
Carl. “Ready Dani?”

The
girl gave a nod and then jogged over to the front of the building looking as
weak as she could manage, playing her part of damsel in distress. She all but pushed herself up against the
glass doors and looked with desperate eyes at the night security guards
within. Two men, who upon seeing the
young girl with tears in her eyes sprang into action. One hurried forwards and opened the door, the
other standing just behind him.

“Please,
I’ve just been attacked and he broke my phone, so he could…” she paused, cupped
her face in her hands and began crying.

The
guards looked at Dani’s loose top and the way her jeans were not done up
properly. “It’s alright Miss, you’re
safe now,” said the front guard as he tried to sooth Dani.

5

Separated
from Dani, Carl and Elliot observed her as closely as they could.

“Shit!”
muttered Carl under his breath. “One of
the guards is still inside.”

“Don’t
worry. Dani will get him out,” Elliot
assured.

6

“Oh
thank you. It was horrible,” Dani wailed
to the guards. “A man in a suit... Touching me…”
Dani touched herself, further distracting the guards and then pretended
to wretch in disgust. “I don’t know if
he’s still over there or not,” said Dani as wiping tears, she took a step back
and pointed away to the other side of the deserted street, to where nothing but
tall bushes lined the road in front of large office building.

Instinctively,
the front guard stepped out beside Dani and looked off to where she was
pointing and as he moved, the curious second guard took a step forward.

Dani
looked back at him and suddenly the tears in her eyes were gone as the behind guard
froze in mid step, unable to move under Dani’s telekinetic power.

At
that moment Elliot stepped out from his hiding place in the bushes, pretending
to be the attacker Dani had described. Immediately
and even at this range the front guard’s eyes met Elliot’s, and the guard’s
mind went blank.

Carl
emerged from the bushes and jogged up to walk beside Elliot, who with his hand
outstretched had the guard hypnotised and completely under his control,
paralysed and unable to do anything but wait for his mental controller’s commands.

“Hurry!”
called Dani as she stood rigid, concentrating hard and keeping the other guard
frozen on the spot.

The
guard under Elliot’s control turned and walked back passed his partner, who
unable to move anything but his eyes, was powerless to intervene. Into the building went the hypnotised guard
and through the large reception area, shoes tapping on the polished marble
floor, until he sat behind the desk. The
guard looked down at the monitors and stared fixedly at them without blinking,
as if he was watching the most riveting thing he had ever seen and was alone to
do so.

“Alright
Dani,” eased Elliot as he turned his attention to the other man.

Dani’s
body relaxed and she took a step back, letting Elliot move between her and the
guard. Tidying her appearance she
followed the two of them in while Carl closed the doors and then moved quickly
to the desk.

“Perfect,”
Carl praised under his breath as he began tapping keys on the keyboard in front
of the mesmerised guards. “I can disable
the alarms from here. Means the only
thing we have to worry about now are those,” Carl pointed to three different
screens and in each, three different men walked down three different corridors,
patrolling the deserted building, guaranteeing security.

“The
roaming guards,” confirmed Dani. “Well
now we know where they are, we should be able to keep an eye out for them. Is there any way we can get to the control
room without going near them?”

“I
don’t know. They could have the same
route at different time intervals, then again, they could have three different
routes – Leóni said he couldn’t get that intelligence. Come on, let’s go. Elliot?”

“Set. These two will be fine in a few minutes and
won’t remember a thing. Sure you don’t
want me to leave them under my spell until we get out?”

Carl
shook his head. “No. We can’t take the risk of one of the patrols
coming back here and finding them like that,” Carl answered as he moved off
into the building.

Dani
and Elliot followed.

Carl
looked at the elevators and then turned his head. “The control room will be on this floor
somewhere, so we don’t need to worry about those.”

“Good,”
said Dani, “I don’t like elevators!”

As
the two followed Carl, Elliot gave Dani a surprised look. “I didn’t know you looked that official now.”

Dani
shook her head in a dismissive gesture and putting the finishing touches on
tidying her appearance, hurried to keep pace with Carl. “How do I look?”

Carl
studied her for a moment and then nodded. “You need to do up another button on your
blouse and here,” Carl handed her a security ‘visitor’ identification
badge. “This won’t fool anyone who looks
closely enough, but as long as they see an ID on you this far in, they won’t look closely enough. You too Elliot.”

“Where
did you get these?”

“Swiped
them from the front desk.” Carl then
produced his own ID badge that he had originally brought with him in his combat
trouser pocket.

7

As
the three of them walked on, a member of the staff that worked in the building
passed by them. Elliot was ready to
seize her mind should that be necessary, but the worker gave the three of them
nothing more than a casual glance before carrying on passed them.

When
she had passed out of earshot, Carl explained. “This is a government building, so although a
lot quieter at this time of night, it’s not going to be completely empty. Remember to act naturally, like you belong
here, just like we planned.”

A
few corridors later, Carl stopped outside an unmarked door that looked
identical to all the others they had passed.
“This should be it. Elliot, can
you sense anyone in there?”

Elliot
concentrated for a second and then a concerned look crossed his face. “One person, tired, but definitely still
awake.”

“Okay,
here we go!” Carl announced as he opened the door and stepped into the
room.

The
three of them stood for a moment in surprise, as the one occupant in the room
turned to them and asked in a thick Spanish accent, “Yes, Sir?”

Dani
and Elliot glanced at each other and then looked around the reasonably small
room. There were shelves of cleaning
equipment, spare lights, disposal bags and all manner of things that a well-equipped
janitor would have to look after a large building. It was obvious to Elliot that there were
usually a staff of janitors, judging from the size of the room and the fact
that a number of chairs were here, but at this late hour, only one of the
maintenance staff was on site.

“Just
checking your location,” Carl misinformed with experienced authority. Then without another word he turned and
ushered Dani and Elliot from the room, closing the door again behind him.

In
his mind Elliot heard the translation from the cleaner and it eased his
mind. “Looks like they moved the control
room then,” Elliot mocked.

Carl
glared at Elliot and then nodded with sarcasm. “Yes, Elliot, it’s moved.”

“Any
ideas where?” Elliot replied in complete seriousness.

Carl
dropped his eyes to the floor and rubbed the stubble on his chin. “If the control room isn’t on the ground
floor anymore then the only other place it could be moved to would be the first
floor. Come on!”

Again
Elliot and Dani followed Carl as he led them back towards the elevators. “There’s a stairwell just next to the
elevators, we can take that up to the next floor.”

They
briskly walked back the way they had come and through the small doorways that
led to the stairs. The stairwell was
only dimly lit and each step echoed as the three ran up to the next floor. Carl’s hand fell on the doorknob when Dani
suddenly sprang forward and gripped his arm.

“Wait!”
she whispered loudly before throwing herself against Carl and pushing him back
behind the door. A second later the door
opened and a patrolling guard stepped through to be face to face with
Elliot. The guard was dressed in the
same grey uniform that those on the front desk had been wearing and like those,
his mind was quickly subdued by Elliot’s powerful hypnotism and telepathic
control.

“What
should I do with him?” asked Elliot calmly as he stepped around the guard and
closed the door. “Just leave him to
guard this spot?”

“No,”
answered Carl. “He has to keep up his
patrol and keep to his schedule.”

“Okay. Um, yeah, okay. I’m gonna give us a few seconds to get out of
here then snap him out of this. Ready?”

Carl
looked back to Dani as he grabbed the door handle again. “If you sense anything watching us, any
cameras, then fuzz ‘em.”

Dani
frowned.

“You
know – stop ‘em watching us like you did in the station.”

Dani’s
brows raised and she nodded.

Carl
opened the door to the first floor and glanced up and down the corridor. “Clear!”

Dani
followed Carl from the stairwell as Elliot moved around behind the guard. Then with a mental suggestion that was the
equivalent of snapping his fingers, Elliot released the guard from his trance
and quietly shut the door, leaving the guard to believe that they had never
been there and that the door was closing because he had just shut
it.

The
guard carried on up the stairwell to the next floor with nothing more than the
elusive feeling of having forgotten something.

“How
did you know?” Carl asked Dani as they walked along the corridor.

“I
don’t know. It just happens. Things come to me and I know without any
doubt, or rather I feel, what’s about to happen.”

“Useful,”
Carl observed with thoughts of blocked guards and caught cameras in his mind.

Dani
did not answer Carl’s statement, instead looked over her shoulder to check on
Elliot.

8

Carl
led the two of them along the same shaped route that they had taken on the
floor below until they neared their destination and once again Dani put her
hand on Carl’s arm.

“We
should be careful up ahead,” Dani advised.

Carl
nodded in acknowledgment.

With
a quick look around the last corner of the corridor, Carl understood Dani’s
warning. Leaning back to the others he
revealed, “There’s a guard’s post opposite what should be the control
room!”

Elliot
concentrated for a moment before speaking.
“It’s no good, there are too many people nearby –in the control room I
assume– for me to be able to tell how many minds ahead belong to guards.”

“Well
then we’ll just have to hope they don’t recognise us. Come on,” and again Carl took the lead with
the others following close behind.

As
they walked towards the control room door and the guard’s station opposite it, Elliot’s
mind cleared, focusing himself for whatever he may have to do.

Carl
blocked Elliot and Dani from security guard view, as with their distance steady
pace Elliot was able to take control.

On
approach Elliot cleared the seated external guard opposite the control room and
whispered, “Done.” Elliot had wiped that
single guard’s mind and prepared to envelope with others. The group were still several meters away as
Elliot attempted to count the minds around.
“Three guards. Four staff in the
control room,” Elliot observed, waving a right chop from the right of the
corridor to the left.

“Wait!”
cried Dani as she held back the other two.
At that moment a guard walked out of the station and turned into the
corridor with his back to the intruders.
Still unaware of their presence, he marched away and turned off at the
opposite end of the corridor.

Elliot
amended with a second waving chop from the right of the corridor to the left, “Two guards left. Four staff in the control room.”

Carl
gave Elliot a bemused look.
“Thanks…” Walking forward with
purpose in his strides, Carl entered the guard station as if he was in charge.

It
was a reasonably small room with a single window that looked out into the
corridor at the opposite door to the control room. Both the remaining guards looked up from
their seats and watched as Carl marched over, leaned between them and checked
the monitors.

“Can
I help you?” asked one of the guards in an irritated tone.

“Yes. You can help me by going to sleep.”

The
guard had just enough time to register the vacant look on his colleague’s face
before Carl’s knuckles knocked the man into unconsciousness. Carl stood for a moment and hesitated as the
other guard sat motionless, locked in his mind by Elliot’s telepathically
powered hypnosis. “Like kicking a puppy,”
Carl muttered under his breath before he grabbed the second guard around his
neck and put a sleeper hold on the man.
At just the right time between unconsciousness and strangulation, Carl
released the second guard to the floor.

“Coast
is still clear,” called Dani from the doorway.
“But we’ve got a problem! There’s
a card reader on the control room door!”

“Not
a problem,” Carl called back as he and Elliot dragged the guards’ bodies around
behind the desks.

“Okay,
Elliot – grab that guy’s security pass and get ready.”

“Got
it,” Elliot confirmed as he made his way out of the small guards room, he locked
it. Elliot then stepped to the control
room and swiped, ready for Carl.

As
soon as Elliot had swiped the card through the lock on the control room
opposite, Carl brushed passed him and entered the room in the same manner of
authority as he had displayed for the guards.

The
four officers in the control room immediately looked up to the room
entrant.

With
his hands raised, Carl stated, “Alright everybody, we’ve had a report of a
break-in. This is a security check,
please remain where you are.”

The
four people in the control room looked around at each other and did as they
were told.

Elliot
entered the room behind Carl, leaving Dani alone in the corridor to watch for
trouble.

The
control room was a long reasonably narrow room with a single row of double desks
lined up opposite one another. Each desk
had at least two monitors on it and the room seemed only to be lit from the
light of those screens, all of which were on regardless of whether someone sat
at the desk.

“I
don’t understand,” piped up one of the operators. He wore now dipped glasses and considered
them a stylish indicator of his intelligence.
“If there’s a break–in, why haven’t we seen anything and why do you need
to check this room? There’s no way
intruders could get in here!”

Elliot
looked at Carl but the secret agent didn’t miss a beat answering. “The break-in is electrical –someone’s in our
systems. I need you to–”

“Begging
your pardon Sir, but that’s impossible,” interrupted the same operator. “I only installed the new hyper-bit
encryption software last month. There’s
no way someone has hacked into our systems!
It just couldn’t be done.”

Without
waiting for Carl to say anything else, Elliot snatched the operator’s mind in a
vice like grip, his three colleagues watching as his puzzled face became serene
and his eyes took on the vacant stare of someone deep in thought. “No, you’re right, I could be wrong,” uttered
the operator in a complete monotone. The
operator turned back to one of his screens and began tapping away at his
keyboard. The screen went blank for a
moment and then the archive folders appeared.

Opposite
the screens the other operators rose up at the files being sought and rose in
their seats.

Carl
moved to lean over the vocal operator’s shoulder and watched closely as the man
pulled up the folders on the Dream Carrier.

“I
know you!” cried another of the operators in an excited screech. “When I used the Dream Carrier, you were the
operator – the hypnotist that worked the machine!”

Carl
whirled on the young woman that had made the identification. She was proud of herself for having
remembered, but did not seem aware that Elliot was a wanted man. Carl glanced at Elliot, his concentration
still locked on the operator summoning the files that they needed to copy.

“Hey! What are you doing here?” continued the young
woman to Elliot.

But
one of the other operators would not accept.
Concerned over their most confident operator raising files for the Dream
Carrier, annoyed by the attention paid upon Elliot, his youthful tone stated, “They’re
stealing the plans for the Dream Carrier!”

As
one of the other workers in the control room made this simple observation, the
atmosphere in the room changed and control slipped through Carl’s fingers. The three operators that were not under
Elliot’s spell all saw the surprise in Carl’s face before he was able to
conceal it and instantly all three were moving.
Carl spun on the spot and almost decapitated one of the three with a
hard forearm to the neck, instantly knocking him to the ground. The two women that remained though were on
the far side of the desks and out of Carl’s reach as they ran to the door,
ignoring Elliot. But just as they reached
the doorway, the girl in front froze causing her friend that had recognised
Elliot to crash into her, sending the pair of them tumbling to the floor. This gave Carl all the time he needed to
catch them and hold them both down.

Dani
put her head round the door and said, “I thought you could use some help! I don’t think we’ve got long, so make it as
fast as you can.”

“Elliot!”
called Carl as he threw over the small universal serial bus device.

Without
looking, Elliot caught the device and walked to the man still locked under his
control. Then suddenly Elliot called,
“Where is it?”

“What?”
Carl called back.

“There’s
no USB slot on this thing! How do we
insert to get the files out?!”

“What!”
Carl called back.

“There’s
nothing to insert this card into the machine,” Elliot confirmed plainly.

“Oh
shit,” Carl panicked. Still stuck
pinning the two female operators, Carl looked up trying to fathom his next
idea.

Elliot
responded. “So first you didn’t know
they moved the control room, and now you’re not aware of the new computer storage?”

After
a few soft steps Dani walked in and called out, “I can hear you guys at the
door, just relax.” Dani walked over to
the console that the hypnotised operator worked at. “Jeez, it’s like neither of you guys know how
to do this.” Dani swung her inseparable bag
from her shoulder and withdrew tiny headphones.

“But
we-”

“AH!”
Dani cut Elliot off with a raised hand.
Then Dani flicked on both her wireless headphones and gently leant down
and rested her head on the top of the computer’s base, secured to the floor
under each desk.

Carl
questioned. “What are you-”

“Shh!”
Dani shushed him.

Through
her headphones combined with her natural senses, Dani listened to the busiest part
of the computer they had hoped to use to extract plans. Dani tilted her head, using both ears, as she
followed something she could hear, and then finally, “Ah ha!” Dani got up with her hand on a patch of the
machine. “This is where we need to
open.”

Immediately
Carl clicked. He withdrew one of his
silenced pistols, ignoring the muffled female operators and he demanded,
“Elliot, hold these ladies down.”

Elliot
obeyed and seized the minds of both in the group he now held at his bay.

Carl
marched over to the computer device and shot at narrow angles to circle around
the machine and create a hole at the point Dani had identified.

“See?”
Dani checked. “That’s the bit of the
machine that always has those port slots, for USB and all other slots, but kept
inside.”

Elliot
smiled. “You knew that, or felt
it.”

Dani
grinned. “You’ll never know.”

“I
should’ve known that in this guy’s mind,” Elliot huffed to himself. He handed his main mental captive the tiny
stick and moments later all the information about the Dream Carrier, everything
from plans to projected uses, was copied onto their universal serial bus device.

Mere
seconds later Carl was at the doorway and peering into the corridor. “Still clear.”

“But
not for long!” Dani added. “Hurry!”

The
controlled operator took the universal serial bus from the internal connection
to his computer and handed it to Elliot, who in return whispered into the man’s
ear, “Thanks, now go to sleep.” Elliot
applied to all those others in his sphere of mental connections around him, and
at once the operator slumped in his chair and slid to the floor, as both the
other female operators fell into sleep.

“Got
it!” Elliot confirmed.

“Okay
Elliot – get Dani and get out!”

“What
about you?” Dani asked.

“I’ll
be right behind you!” Carl replied.

9

Elliot
ran out of the door, the USB stick with the Dream Carrier’s files on it safely
tucked into the inside pocket of his suit jacket. “Come on,” he said as he grabbed Dani’s arm
without slowing down and dragged her back towards the stairwell.

As
they opened the door a shout came from behind them. “You!
Stop!”

“Run!”
Elliot cried as he pushed Dani through the door. Together they raced down the steps and back
to the ground floor, hearing the guard enter the stairwell just as they made
their way back into the ground floor corridor.
They ran back down the maze-like corridors back towards the main
entrance until suddenly a wall appeared before them.

“No,”
whispered Elliot realising that they had made a wrong turn. “Which way?”

Dani
let out a deep breath and then calmly advised, “This way.” Turning on her heal she ran back the way they
had come, Elliot right behind her. They
sprinted back up the corridor until Dani skidded to stop and threw herself against
a door, snatching at Elliot’s hand behind her.
“Quick in here!”

They
entered an empty office that was designed for no more than a single worker and
quietly shut the door behind them. Dani
raised a finger to her lips and motioned for Elliot to be silent.

Pressing
their ears to the door they listened as footsteps came running down the
corridor, only to be echoed by a second set of shoes.

“Where
did they go?” came a muffled voice from the other side of the door.

“Into
one of these offices?”

“Nah,
they’re all locked.”

“They
didn’t come through reception, they must have doubled back or gone up in the
elevators!”

“Okay,
you get back to reception and keep an eye out with the others.”

“Yes
Sir!”

Dani
and Elliot heard a set of footsteps running away. Then a burst of static hissed through the
door and the remaining voice spoke again.
“All units, be advised that there are multiple intruders trying to
escape the building. Apprehend them
using any means possible. They have
stolen top secret files and must not be allowed to escape. Report your positions to me now and maintain…” The voice passed out of earshot and Dani and
Elliot were left alone in the silence.

“What
do we do?” asked Elliot.

Dani
frowned for a moment. “There’s supposed
to be an escape route just outside the building, right? At least that’s what Leóni said, so all we
have to do is get outside. We’ve got no
choice. We need Carl for the back–up
plan.”

“This
was never going to work anyway!” complained Elliot suddenly. “The guards probably should just have taken
all three of us away into custody by now.”

Dani
sighed. “You’re probably right. But right now, we need to focus. Braking out from Rain’s mental block will be
nothing compared to convincing a whole building we were never here – which is
what we might have to do to get out of here.
Are you ready?”

“As
ready as I’ll ever be.”

Leaning
in close to the door again, Elliot tried to sense minds as Dani listened for
voices and when neither heard anything, they opened the door just a narrow
fraction. Peering out into the corridor Dani
was relieved to see that no one was there.
Waving Elliot out behind her, she crept out and continued up the
corridor, back towards where her instincts told her the exit was. As they neared the first corner of the
corridor, footsteps marched towards them.
With a panicked glance at each other, Elliot and Dani spun around and
both tried the doors closest to them.
Both were locked.

Elliot
looked back up the corridor just in time to see the grey uniformed guard round
the corner. The man’s hands fell
simultaneously to his gun and his wrist radio, but neither touched its intended
target, as the man froze where he was and his mind went blank.

Dani
looked at Elliot realising that he had a hold of the guard.

“I’ve
got him,” whispered Elliot.

Dani
blinked slowly and the guard’s body seemed to relax a little.

Elliot
waved his hand in a slow, disarming gesture in front of his face and the guard
slid to the floor, a deep sleep putting a content little smile on his
face.

The
two hypnotists hurried along the passage and around the corner.

“Just
up ahead!” warned Dani as she recognised the nearing reception area.

A
few more steps and they were at the final corner. At that moment, time seemed to slow down for
Dani and she knew without any question, what was about to happen.

Elliot
held out his arm, holding her back and stepping around the corner to be the
first into whatever was waiting for them.
The bullet shot through the air with a bass-full silence. The blood spurted from Elliot and sprayed
Dani as he spun from the force of the shot before collapsing to the floor. A silent scream contorted her face as she
looked down at his lifeless body and then the images before her were gone.

Time
sped up for Dani once more and Elliot’s arm rose to keep her from rounding the
corner. In that instant Dani reacted in
complete harmony with her instincts, violently shoving Elliot forward so that
he sprang out from behind the corner and the bullet that would have taken his
life passed harmlessly through the space he would have been standing in. Dani could feel her powers flowing through
her as she stepped around the corner and snatched the guard that had dared to
attack her friend into the air and held him, locked and contorted in a pain he
could not fight.

The
other two guards were stunned to see their partner raised from the ground and
twisted in a way he should not bend, but their shock lasted only a
heartbeat. Two silenced shots based out,
both aimed at Dani. She caught the first
bullet in the air and was saved by luck as the second shot a lock of her
hair.

From
the ground where he had fallen, Elliot raised a hand and one of the two
remaining guards lowered his gun, pointing harmlessly to the floor as he stared
without, looking into oblivion.

Without
warning a third shot rang out from the final guard, sending a bullet through
the air to drop his aimed target to the floor.

10

“What
about you?” Dani asked.

“I’ll
be right behind you!” Carl replied. Carl
turned and left Dani and Elliot to move on as he strode back over to the main
machine. The only machine still storing the Dream Carrier’s information was the only potential source of danger for the
other ‘debriefed’ hypnotists, or any others involved with the original Dream
Carrier project. And Carl felt to
protect them all. He aimed his silenced
pistol and shot bass powers several times, destroying the contents of the
control machine.

The
scrapple unfolded, crackled and wasted, leaving Carl satisfied.

Carl
stepped to the door, which without Dani to hold it open had closed itself. As his hand clasped the lock he heard a shout
commanding, “You! Stop!” coming from the
other side.

Carl
opened the door in time to see a guard running down the corridor and into the
stairwell, watching as his escape route became compromised. That left him only one option – he had to
take the elevator down the one floor he needed to descend and hope that no one
saw him and trapped him within. Pistol
re-holstered, he briskly walked the short distance to the elevator and waited
patiently, watching as the lift came down from the seventh floor. Six, Carl looked up and down the
corridor. Five, caution got the better
of him and Carl drew his gun. Four, he
took the safety off and cocked the weapon.
Three, his heart pounding in his chest as he heard screams for help
coming from the control room. Two, a
flicker of movement caught his eye as the guards from the station opposite the
control room stepped out together, one holding his head, the other rubbing his
jaw. One, the elevator bell chimed and
the doors opened to reveal a single guard.

Years
of experience led Carl to a reflexive response as he shot his head forward and
butted the guard backwards into the elevator.
But the guard was a tough man with his cap in his way and only staggered
on his feet, not knocked down. Carl
raised his gun by the guard grabbed Carl’s wrists and tried to twist the gun
free.

In
the background, Carl could hear the guards responding to the screams from the
control room. As he fought the man in
the lift, he heard re-enforcements on the way.
This was taking too long! Carl
took one hand away from his gun and fired a fist into the guard’s stomach then
followed it up with an uppercut elbow to the man’s head. The resilient guard dropped to the floor like
a dead weight and Carl spun around to confront the others. He could not chance staying here in the lift
for a fire fight and so dived out through the elevator doors firing as he
landed. Both guards instinctively
dropped to the ground and rolled towards the walls. As they tried to draw their own weapons Carl
sprang to his feet and launched himself at the door to the second
stairwell. Bursting through it, he all
but threw himself down the stairs and cleared the second flight in two
strides. Snatching open the door to the
ground floor, raced out along the corridor back towards the entrance. Carl had been delayed by several moments destroying
the main machine in the control room, waiting for the elevator not to generate
chase around Dani or Elliot, fighting inside the lift and then the brief fire
fight with the guards. Had Elliot and
Dani gotten out okay? Would Leóni and
the others still be waiting for him if Elliot had the USB stick? Carl could only hope and pray that the escape
route Leóni had said would be waiting for them was still there.

Carl
sprinted along the corridor and was just reaching the last corner before the
reception area, when he heard the sounds of active guards, but not from behind
him, pursuing him as he had expected.
The action of a silenced shot ricocheted off the wall came from his
destination! Carl rounded the corner to
see Elliot on the ground and for a split second he feared the worst. A glance at Dani told him that she was under
incredible strain, using all her power for blocking bullet attacks, but above
all holding a guard restrained and captured in the air. More shots were fired, one hitting the wall
behind Dani, others hitting Dani’s telekinetic catch, and by then Carl was desperate
to join the fight. He dived into the
fray and used his reflexes and training to fire off one single shot as he
fell. The bullet flew truly and hit the
only guard not being restrained by the psychics, dropping him with a grunt of
shock and pain.

Remembering
that more guards were still in pursuit, Carl quickly got to his feet and pulled
Elliot up with him. Carl was alarmed as
he saw the anger in Dani’s eyes, glaring as they were at the man she still held
above the ground, bending him, twisting him and torturing him. A tear rolled down her cheek and the man
dropped to the ground in incredible pain, but still alive. Carl grabbed Dani around her waist and yanked
her forwards.

Elliot
dropped his arm down and the guard under his control dropped with it, falling
into unconsciousness. Together the three
raced from the building, Carl shooting open the door and running into the
deserted road. They stood for only a
second and then Leóni’s escape route arrived – his loud helicopter landing like
a stone in the middle of the road and from its door, the woman who had attended
them on their first flight leaned out and screamed at them to hurry. Sinclair looked nothing like the polite attendant
that they had first met, now dressed for combat and holding a machinegun, ready
to cover their run to the copter.

The
shots from the automatic weapon rang out and the sound of even more shattering
glass echoed behind them.

Answering
shots were few and wide, aimed more from the need to respond to the threat
rather than to stop the three thieves escaping.
Carl made it to the door first and spun around, but as he lifted Dani up
to the helicopter, Sinclair blocked the doorway.

“Did
you get it?” she shouted.

Understanding
that there was a price for this flight, Carl responded with a snarl, “We got
it, now get out of the way!”

With
a dark smile, Sinclair obeyed and permitted Dani through the door. Carl spun back around and watching for any
danger to Elliot, aimed his gun at the building, but none of the guards within
dared to venture out into the hail of machinegun fire from the copter. It seemed that the flight attendant was
willing to cover them only as a result of orders and not through any personal
concern for Elliot’s escape. A moment
later Elliot was on board the helicopter and Carl closed the door behind
them.

11

It
had reached almost two in the morning.
Elliot watched, exhausted, as Carl stood arguing with the woman he had
thought nothing more than a flight attendant upon their first meeting. The mysterious Miss Sinclair had covered them
on their escape from the building, she had arrived with the helicopter pilot
just in time for their dramatic rescue.
Elliot thought they owed her their lives, but as he listened to Carl
shout at her, he understood that this woman was nothing more than a paid
mercenary.

“I
was told, if you didn’t have the USB, if you’d not been successful in getting
the information, you were to be left behind.
Don’t get sentimental with me!”

“Bullshit! You’d have left us to be captured or killed
because of an order?! Since when do
mercenaries take orders?!”

“It
wasn’t the order, it’s the pay. I get
paid on delivery of them,” Sinclair flung a hand out towards Elliot and Dani, “and
the USB.”

Carl
glared at her. It was beyond his
understanding that she could have and would have left them there, if he had
told her that they had not got the USB stick.
Realising that this person was the type of criminal that he could well
be hunting down in the future, Carl left it alone.

Turning
her back on him and returning to the cockpit, Sinclair left the three of them
alone.

Elliot
thought it strange that she had not asked to actually see the stick, but then
as he pondered, he thought unless she has a way of seeing what’s on the USB, there was no real point
in asking to see it. Then again, maybe
she wasn’t as heartless as Carl was making her out to be…

In
their pair seats, Elliot squeezed Dani a little closer to him and in her sleep
she let out a deep breath. Almost as
soon as they had settled down in the helicopter and left the danger far behind
them, Dani had fallen asleep. As Elliot
felt her soft hair against the side of his face, he knew that he too would be
joining her very soon. The amounts of
encounters and controls had been very tiring.

Carl
sat down as usual, opposite the two psychics.
He was just about to praise them for their skill in escaping and
everything else that they had done so perfectly well that night, when he
realised that both were sleeping. A
proof of how much power they had been forced to use this night.

With
great care, Carl carefully reached into Elliot’s jacket pocket and felt his
fingers touch the USB stick. Slipping
the plastic device out from the pocket, Carl tucked it into his shirt where
there was no chance of it being removed unless it was taken from his dead
body.

For
what seemed like an hour, but was in fact only twenty minutes or so, Carl
watched Dani and Elliot as they slept peacefully, wondering if their dreams,
the dreams of a psychic were any more vivid or in any way different to his
own.

Folding
his arms across the device in his now zipped shut shirt pocket for extra
certainly of its safety, Carl closed his tired eyes and in only a few minutes
he too was asleep.

12

Carl
opened his eyes to the blinding light of sunrise. He was alone in the helicopter. He got up and forced open the door of the
vehicle, using his hand as he did to shade his eyes from the incredible
brightness. There was an unnatural
silence in the air which seemed to smother everything, blocking out the birds
singing and even the sound of the ocean waves before him.

Carl
staggered from the sleek helicopter and looked around himself at the blue,
cloudless sky and the calm beautiful day.
He was on the helipad at Leóni’s island again, but where was everyone
else?

A
shout muffled by distance caught his attention and shielding his eyes as best
as he could, Carl looked off into the distance towards the source of the sound.
The house seemed further away than
before and near to it was a figure of a man waving both arms to get Carl’s
attention. The brightness did not seem
to bother this mysterious stranger and as Carl squinted he could see the man
beckoning him over. Carl looked around
again confirming he was alone and then began to make his way up towards the
house and the man calling him.

The
walk –which should have taken a few minutes– seemed to be over in only a few
steps, but as Carl reached the place where the man had been standing, he
noticed he was still alone and that the calling man had disappeared. Walking up further, he entered the doors of
the house and once again stood in the huge library. Carl looked around but could not see the
names of any of the books now, as if they were somehow out of focus, though the
rest of what he saw was clear to him.

The
door leading from the library into the house closed catching Carl’s attention
and a heartbeat later, his hand was turning the handle and pulling the door
open.

The
hallway was empty and here deeper into the house the brightness seemed to
fade. Carl stepped to the centre of the
large hall, turning around in its empty vastness and looked left to right at
the two corridors either side of him. He
felt pulled in one direction and so turned to his left and walked slowly down
the wide corridor. There were doors on
both sides as he made his way towards the end of the corridor. As he reached the last well-decorated wooden door
on the left, suddenly all hint of the brightness that had obscured his vision
was completely gone, and the corridor around him dimmed. Carl took the remaining few steps to the last
door and felt a chill inside himself.
The door ahead caught his attention, a black mist seeming to trickle
from its frame, escaping from the room behind.
The chill worsened and as Carl’s hand touched the knob, his fingers
turned to ice.

“Carl,”
whispered a voice to his right close enough that he could feel cool breath on
his skin. Startled Carl spun around to
the shock of being face to face with his father, Edward Blain!

For
a single heartbeat Carl saw his father, young and as Carl had always known him
from the photos his mother had shown him.

“Carl,”
called another voice from a different place and Carl opened his eyes.

“We’re
here,” said Elliot. “Are you
alright? You look a little…”

“I’m
fine,” Carl answered as he rubbed his head.
“Just a dream.”

Chapter
Eight – August 17th 2099, 06:14

1

Miss
Sinclair opened the door to the helicopter and stepped outside into the early
morning. As Carl followed he took
comfort in the simple sounds he heard.
The birds were singing and even the soft breeze whispered in his ears,
all helping to make the discomforting dream fade away.

“I’ve
been told that Mr Leóni is ready for you and eager to see the plans you brought
back.”

None
of the three passengers replied to Sinclair’s statement, instead just following
her up to the house in silence. Once
they reached the doors into the back of the house Sinclair left them, and as
they entered the library Rain stood just within waiting for them. She looked at all three in turn, Carl last
and leaving her gaze on him for a moment longer than the others. Carl folded his arms as he stared back at
her.

“Well
done,” Rain began, “our intelligence tells us you caused quite a stir last
night and that you managed to get to copy the Dream Carrier plans onto storage.” Rain turned and led them from the large room,
continuing to speak over her shoulder as they went. “Of course as far as the public knows through
the news already reported, nothing was actually stolen. But, once we complete construction on our
Dream Carrier and all the final pieces are in place, we’ll tell the world what
we have. Then you’ll be free to go and
live your lives without fear.”

Rain
led them through the large hall and off to the left, down the corridor that
Carl had seen in his dream. The corridor
from his dream had faded now and Carl could not remember the scene as vividly
as he had earlier, but still everything felt familiar.

“We’re
not free to go now?” Dani asked Rain.

Rain
hesitated a moment and then replied. “That’s not really for me to say. I should imagine Mr Leóni would release you
if you asked, but this is a delicate time for us. We’re so close to our goals, if you were to
leave now and be caught by the men that are after you, you could jeopardise
everything we’ve worked towards and make last night a complete waste of
time. Wouldn’t you like to stay here for
a little while longer?”

“Um,”
Dani thought out loud before answering, “I guess.” She looked at Elliot and he shrugged. “Why not?!”

Rain
stopped outside the last door on the left of the corridor and turned back to
face them. “I’m glad,” she said keeping
her eyes away from Carl’s look. Rain
placed her hand on the door and announced, “Now, Mr Leóni is waiting for
you.”

A
flashback from Carl’s dream shot through his mind and he remembered the cold
chill he had felt upon touching that door, the black mist that had been seeping
from the frame and then his father’s face.
Blocking any hesitation from his dream Carl subtly shook his head.

As
Rain began opening the door she suddenly hesitated and glanced at Carl. Then the door was open.

2

The
room was a large, neatly-kept and expensively furnished office. The desk near the windows a few steps away
was large and had nothing but a touchscreen display on it. From behind the desk walked Leóni as he
crossed the room in a few strides and met them at the door. Almost snatching Elliot’s hand from his side,
Leóni shook it warmly and congratulated. “Well done!
And to you too Miss Le Freau, an excellent effort!” he said, pulling her
to him. Finally he moved before Carl and
held out his hand, but Carl did not respond.

“An
excellent job, Mr Blain,” Leóni congratulated as he glanced down at his own
empty hand.

Carl
smiled and as he placed his hand in Leóni’s, he passed over the universal
serial bus with all the Dream Carrier information. “Thanks.”

Leóni
turned slowly, staring intently at the USB stick in his hand. “Yes,” he whispered as he walked in awe to
his computer, as if what he was holding was made of the most delicate
glass. As he sat at his desk what he
held suddenly seemed to register in his mind and he began moving quickly, sliding
the stick onto the motion touch desk area, and opening the folders that would
read its securely connected contents onto the screen.

As
the plans flashed up onto the screen, a smile crossed Leóni’s face and he
watched like a child looking at a puppet show as the information he had sought
came flooding into his brain. “Yes. This is it!
With this, I can complete my own Dream Carrier and then…” He looked up at the others, “Then, you will
be free to go.”

“So
you’re not letting us go now?!” asked Dani.

“I’m
afraid not, Miss Le Freau. For your own
safety as well as that of my project, I must insist that you remain – at least
until I have held a press conference and announced my planned unveiling of the
first privately owned Dream Carrier.
Once the public is aware of my machine, the following scandal will
guarantee that you will be safe from the Special Operations division. They will have no need nor any cause to bring
you into custody.”

Dani
nodded her approving explanation.

“I’m
still not a hundred percent on that though,” said Elliot. “Are you sure they won’t still want us
for, err, ‘questioning’ or something?”

Leóni
looked back at his screen and let out a breath, obviously irritated by these
questions and wishing to be left alone with the plans. Before Leóni could reply, Carl spoke. “Once the Dream Carrier is made public again
and with people able to use it and decide for themselves about its accuracy,
there’ll be repercussions in the Agency.
They won’t be able to carry on using the Dream Carrier in secrecy the
way the wanted to-”

“Why
not?” interrupted Dani.

“Think
about it. A machine you’re saying
doesn’t work has been built by a private individual –at great cost– who’s
claiming it does work. He’s also
offering people the chance to use it for themselves. People are gonna want to know what happened
to that original machine. All the time
and money spent on making people forget it and making them believe it was a
fraud will have been wasted. The only
choice is to either pay off Mr Leóni so that his machine is never brought into
the light, or agree with him. Make up
some excuse about why the original machine was taken away and then put it in a
museum or something – if not bring it back into public service
themselves.”

Mr
Leóni now carried on Carl’s explanation. “And since I will not be bought, my machine will
be completed and the public will know about it.”

“But
what if they don’t?” Elliot questioned.
“What if the government or the Agency or whoever, stick to their story
regardless and don’t do what you’re assuming?”

“They’d
have to,” responded Carl. “There’s no
way anyone could operate a Dream Carrier project behind closed doors when the
general public would be asking so many questions. Someone could easily talk and blow the whole
thing. No, we’ll be safe from the Black
Ops guys. In fact, once Mr Leóni goes
public with his machine, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Dream Carrier
project taken away from Black Ops, Special Ops or anyone else – they’ll want to
distance themselves from any press at all costs, so won’t want to hang onto
it.”

Elliot
looked away from Carl and seemed to consider these words. A moment later a new layer of confidence
seemed to surround him and he agreed. “Okay then.
Mr Leóni, Dani, Carl and I’ll look forward to your generous hospitality
over the coming weeks.”

Rain
opened the door and Elliot and Dani walked with her from the room. Knowing what would now be discussed, Rain
left Carl alone with her employer and closed the door behind her.

3

Carl
took a step closer to the desk and then got straight to the point. “You said you’d tell me about my father if I
did this for you. Now, I need to
know. Please tell me what you know and
how you came to have a copy of this,” Carl held up the copy of his father’s
death certificate.

Mr
Leóni nodded slowly, looking passed Carl as if listening to a voice only he
could hear. “Please, sit down Mr Blain
and I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Carl
moved forward and took the seat in front of the desk making the leather creak
as he sat. Like a child, Carl sat
leaning forward, his attention hanging on what Leóni was about to say.

With
a deep sigh, Mr Leóni began. “I’m sorry
Mr Blain, but what I have to tell you will not be easy to hear. I came into possession of that copy death
certificate because my father had it made.”

“Your
father?!”

“Yes. I am Roberto Leóni Junior. My father, Roberto Leóni Senior knew your
father well. In fact, he hired your
father as a bodyguard. With all his
money and power, my father had many enemies and as such, this made him a
prudent man. Your father was one of two
bodyguards that he kept with him at all times.”

Carl
knew that his father had been in the Central Intelligence Agency. His father had worked for the government, and
not been a bodyguard. But if this had
been an undercover assignment then things made sense. However that was an assumption and not one
Carl was willing to share. Sitting in
silence he listened, now with sceptical ears, as Leóni continued.

“I
know what you must be thinking. Your
father worked for the government, so what was he doing watching over my father
as a bodyguard? The answer is far more
complicated than you would guess. You
see, your father was there on assignment and the objective of his mission was
to acquire the plans to a machine my father had provided the funding for.

“Being
a keen business man and a religious man, my father had been fascinated by the
potential of the project he funded. That
project was the original Dream Carrier, designed by a man named Hans Bronkoff.”

Carl
was quietly stunned by this revelation, but he did not interrupt. His doubts and suspicions disappeared as he
continued listening to Leóni’s explanation.

“When
my father was approached by Bronkoff, he at once saw the potential that such a
machine could offer. If it could be
built, it would be priceless.

“Somehow,
the government knew about this project also and sent in your father to acquire
all the information he could. When
Bronkoff succeeded in making the machine, your father was ordered to stop this
machine from being in the hands of a private citizen. This was deemed a much too, err, shall we say
controversial machine to be handled by anyone except the government themselves,
or so the administration of the time believed.
But when your father approached mine, I’m afraid things did not run
quite as smoothly as both men would have liked.
Of course my father was willing to co-operate and pass the machine over
to the officials and accept the compensation offered, but when Bronkoff found
out his machine would be taken away from him, he went mad. ‘My life’s work will not be stolen,’ I’m told
he screamed. It was then that he pulled
a gun and murdered your father. By more
luck than anything else, Bronkoff’s shooting set off an explosion which killed
him and destroyed his dream. My father
barely escaped from our burning house with his life.”

Carl
looked at the carpeted floor and thought to himself. What he had been told made sense and followed
the small amount of evidence he had gathered over the years. Returning his gaze to Mr Leóni he said,
“Thank you. You’ve helped me lay to rest
a mystery that has tormented me all my life.”

“You’re
welcome, Mr Blain. But the story doesn’t
end there. You see, one of the original
scientists working on the machine with Bronkoff was Steven Romonovski. After the unpleasantness, he left and
apparently had his own copy of Bronkoff’s research. Years later when the Dream Carrier was
unveiled to the world, I followed the stories about it closely. When it was announced that the Dream Carrier
was a fraud, I knew something untoward was happening. My father had told many people before he
died, that he was not afraid of death, for he had seen his past life and knew
that he would live again. Many of these
people laughed at him or thought him mad.
My father knew that the Dream Carrier worked and so I made it my mission
to prove to the rest of the world that he was right.”

Concluding,
Carl stated, “So you brought in two of the operators and me to help you get
your own Dream Carrier up and running.”

“Through
my connections, I learned that you were the man in charge of the project and
that you were to be silenced by its new, shall we say ‘handlers’. I saw this as my way of recruiting you. The others were more of a safety measure – I
couldn’t and still don’t know that Rain will be able to operate my Dream
Carrier properly once it’s completed, so who better than the team leader and a
secondary operator to guarantee success?”

“Elliot
the leader and best hypnotist, and the gifted one, Dani… I see. Would kinda be falling at the last hurdle to
have the machine built and then not be able to find someone to operate it well. I’m sure they’re glad you stepped in and once
again, let me thank you for everything.
I don’t know that I’d even be alive today, let alone in full knowledge
of what happened to my father if it weren’t for you. Thank you Mr Leóni.”

“You’re
welcome once again Mr Blain. Now please
make yourself at home over the coming weeks.
It shouldn’t take more than a few, for construction to be complete and
then we’ll announce to the world what we have and you and the others will be
safe.”

Standing,
Carl offered his hand and after only a moment’s distracted hesitation, Mr Leóni
took it and shook back warmly.

4

Closing
the door behind him, Carl left the office and walked back the way he had
come. Once at the staircase he went up to
the next floor and to his room, yawning heavily as he reached the door. It was almost seven and still early in the
morning when Carl realised he had not slept well in days.

As
he dropped down onto the large bed, he felt as though the weight of mystery
that had been his father’s shady death was now finally lifted. Reaching into his bag from the bed, he felt
for his file containing all he had learned over the years about his
father. Opening the folder he looked at
the picture inside the cover.

“I
did it, Dad. I finally found out what
happened to you.” After he stated these
few words, Carl slipped away into the deepest sleep of his life, finally at
rest in a way he had never experienced before.

He
slept for the next several hours in total peace, dreaming of nothing in
particular, his mind almost completely still and silent.

After
hours had passed and the afternoon had arrived Carl’s sleep became less
peaceful. He began tossing and
turning. The file that he had fallen
asleep clutching to him in his arms slipped from his grasp and fell to the
floor.

“Carl!”
came the sharp whisper snapping him awake.
Sitting upright Carl looked around his room and confirmed that he was
alone. He saw the file on the floor and
bent to retrieve it, but as he did his eyes met those in the photo of his
father and a clouded memory teased his mind.
Something he could not remember, but that demanded his full attention,
froze him in motion.

The
picture of his father had triggered something in his mind. A dream?
A memory based on his mother’s stories?
Carl could not be sure what it was.
He felt frustrated as he collected the file and swung around from the
bed to replace it in his bag. Carl sat
for a moment with a frown upon his face as he tried to order his thoughts and
place the familiar feeling, but he did not have time to properly consider
things as after only a few moments there was a knock at his door.

“Carl?”
called Dani from the other side.

Carl
opened the door for her and saw that Elliot was with her.

“Rain
says that Mr Leóni would like to have a late lunch with us. Coming?”

Carl
nodded and stepped out of the room, glancing back to his bag and the file
within as he closed the door.

Dani
started the conversation. “So, Rain was
her normal, guarded self, but since we’ve been back, I can definitely feel
something in the air. A sort of
excitement about the place.”

“Tell
me about it,” agreed Elliot as he rolled his eyes over Dani to Carl. “Rain’s still trying to block me, but I don’t
think even the most powerful telepath in the world could keep Leóni’s thoughts
quiet – he’s ecstatic!”

The
three walked down the stairs and along the corridor until they reached an open
set of doors leading into a dining room.
At the back of the room was a second set of doors opening out onto a patio
and it was there that their host had decided they would dine. The large, handsomely decorated area showed
pale, patted floor tiles, upon which a classical outdoor table and chairs
smartly presented attraction.

Walking
out into the pleasant warmth of the beautiful day, the three were greeted by a
different Mr Leóni to the one they had agreed to help. Mr Leóni, normally so serious and distanced
all but sprang out of his chair and charged at them. He seized Elliot and Dani in his arms and
hugged them before snatching Carl’s hand and shaking it while still holding
Dani to him.

“My
friends! The plans you secured
have been a great success in only these few short hours! It seems that you have acquired everything I
will need! As such, I have already arranged
to submit a statement to those that can free you from your pursuers. I have also arranged for a statement to be
issued to the press. Within the week,
you will be absolutely useless targets and will no doubt be sought after by
whoever takes over responsibility for the governments Dream Carrier to take up
your old positions.”

Dani
smiled at Elliot, who in turn let a look of relief cross his face. Only Carl still remained unsure. Something at the back of his mind would not
let him relax his guard. Whether it was
the years of training and experience in the field or simply a gut feeling,
something stopped Carl from embracing the news as happily as the others.

In
his joy, Mr Leóni did not seem to pick up on this, but as Rain sat down to join
them for their meal, her eyes fell upon Carl and there they stayed. She knew that he was apprehensive, could feel
his lack of trust emanating from him with each beat of his heart.

As
lunch began there was no tension in Mr Leóni as he explained his plans to
them. “You see, I’ve always been
fascinated by the experiences people have had with regression – a hypnotic
technique used to send people so deep into a hypnotic state that they are
capable of remembering past-life experiences.
I have explored into my own past with Rain’s skilful aid and I wish to
continue to unlock this past, using the Dream Carrier for greater detail. I have been trying with my own Dream Carrier,
but up to now have only met with very limited success due to its
incompleteness.

“The
finished Dream Carrier amplifies that technique to a power that cannot be
doubted. This will also serve to confirm
my Dream Carrier is functioning correctly.
Once we have this confirmation, I will begin to invite people here to my
island to use it. Researching myth –both
religious and folklore– I have been able to come up with a formula that would
allow calculations to be performed that could, potentially, allow us to
identify people that we suspect to have been certain individuals in their last
life. I have a list of some of those
potential people and it is these few that I wish to invite here to be the first
to use my Dream Carrier.”

“Oh,”
strung out Dani, deeply impressed by the level of information and research Mr
Leóni claimed carried out. “So who are
these people?”

As
Dani asked the question, Elliot’s mental attention was pulled to Leóni. Leóni did not immediately answer and for only
the slightest moment, sent out something that contradicted his happiness. Elliot barely caught it as in the blink of an
eye the conversation continued, but something had definitely been there,
faintly sensed by Elliot.

“There’s
no point in me telling you who they are now – you won’t know them. As for who they were… Well, until I can be sure, I’d rather not say,”
answered Mr Leóni with a secretive smile.

“Okay,”
chirped Dani as she scooped up some of her ice-cream treat.

5

After
lunch, Mr Leóni’s three guests took him up on his suggestion that they go for a
walk to see the island’s beautiful beach.
They headed off from the patio down in the general direction of the
helipad, veering off towards the sandy beach and its bordering palm trees.

Mr
Leóni sat quietly, waiting to hear if Rain had picked up anything that he
should know about. She sat looking off
after the three, in particular focusing to clear passed Elliot in order to
engulf on Carl.

“He
definitely suspects something,” Rain referred to Carl while gesturing Elliot to
be only on himself. “The two psychics
are fine, I think, as they’re not even aware of Carl’s suspicions – they’re
still too focused on my attempts to block their own powers. I don’t know what it is –in fact I don’t even
think he knows– but I could certainly feel Blain’s apprehension over
lunch.”

Mr
Leóni sat resting his chin on his clasped hands as he too watched the three
figures moving further away. He thought
in silence for a moment and then issued his instructions. “Find out what he’s thinking. I can’t afford for any complications
here. Once the machine is up and running
they won’t matter, but until then nothing must go wrong.” Mr Leóni flicked his eyes at Rain. “Do whatever you have to do, but make sure he
doesn’t suspect anything.”

6

Night
on the small island was almost as beautiful and peaceful as day. Despite having slept through the morning, the
long walk and the delicious late dinner they ate on their return had left Carl
feeling tired once more. He had walked
with Elliot and Dani to their rooms and then continued on to his own. The lights were off, but the soft tones from
the full moon and the clear starry night shone through the large window,
casting great shadows over the room.

Laying
in his bed, Carl felt the cool breeze from the open window brush over him and
letting it relax his body, he was soon asleep, his mind showing him the dreams
that were created in his heart.

At
first, through a hazy mist of forgotten memories, Carl saw himself as a small
boy walking with his mother through a park.
He was looking at another boy playing with his father and feeling a
sense of loss himself.

As
he walked with his mother, they saw a man walking towards them, his head bowed
against the cold wind of an autumn day.
Carl wanted this man to recognise him and call him ‘son’, but the man
walked passed, carrying on through a rainfall of leaves from trees that lined
the pathway through his dream.

Carl’s
mind leapt forwards and now through much clearer vision, he was a young man,
just finished his basic training with the Agency. The instructor had been an older man and
someone that Carl had seen as a father figure, a substitute to fill part of a
missing piece of his life. The man
respected Carl and talked to him as an equal, teaching him things he needed to
know.

The
dream jumped again and once more a man barely familiar from distant memories
appeared before Carl. A picture came to
life with such vivid images that for a moment the lucid dream seemed like
reality, as Carl’s father stood before him.

The
man of equal height walked forward and with similar shape embraced his son,
Carl smiling and happily returning the warm gesture.

“I
did it Dad! I found out what
happened!”

“…”

“What
do you mean there’s more?”

“…”

“I
don’t understand. How?”

“…”

“Enemy?”

“…”

“I
can’t leave. I have to protect my
friends.”

“…”

“Are
you sure? Then-”

“…”

“No
Dad! Please don’t go!”

“Dad!”
cried Carl as he woke up with a start.
It was still night, silence blanketing the room as Carl’s mind focused
and he remembered where he was. The
dream was still in his mind, but he could not remember what his father had said
and a terrible feeling of loss suffocated Carl as he rubbed his hands over his
face. An important feeling that he was
missing something clung to him as Carl slowly laid back down, his mind racing
as he desperately tried to remember the dream in greater detail. Eventually sleep took Carl once more, but the
dream was gone and did not recur.

7

The
following morning Dani came down to breakfast to find Elliot already seated and
smiling at her appearance.

“Don’t
know,” Elliot admitted. “Haven’t seen
him this morning. Probably still
asleep. Do you want to wait for him –
our host left a message saying that he’d had breakfast and was getting straight
to work on the plans we got for him.”

“Oh,
okay.” Dani looked at the toast and
could smell the deliciously cooked breakfast additions being prepared in the
kitchen. A moment later a butler entered
from the kitchen and asked if they were ready to dine. By now the smell of food had made Dani’s
stomach rumble and without so much as a glance at Elliot she answered with an
enthusiastic, “Yes!”

“Yes
please she means,” Elliot added to the butler, earning a light punch for his
comment on his arm on her way to her seat.

Breakfast
was served and the two enjoyed every mouthful of it. When they were finished Elliot asked, “So
what shall we do today? Still gonna be a
little while before we can leave this island.”

“Hmm… I’d like to go exploring again. Maybe we can go for a swim in the ocean sea?”

“Sure. Let’s go wake Carl up and let him know what
we’re gonna do.”

The
two walked upstairs together, talking about the loveliness of their host’s home
and its resembling to an imagined luxury holiday, until they reached Carl’s
door. Dani raised her knuckles to knock,
but Elliot caught her wrist and whispered, “Wait.”

Then
leaning in closer with her, they put their ears to the door and just beyond,
could hear the sounds of voices.

8

Carl
finished allowing his clothing sanitization and while doing so had decided to
enjoy a relaxing physical shower as well.
When ready to return to his clothing he had been caught off guard coming
out of the shower, by the appearance of Rain.
She had been standing waiting for him, the barest hint of a smile on her
face as she eyed his naked body. Herself
dressed in a light blue fabric brighter than her eyes, loosely and baggy on her
wear to generate a warm, friendliness aura.

Carl
was still feeling distracted by the dream he’d had the night before, and so making
no attempt to hide himself he simply asked, “What do you want?”

“I’d
like to make up for using my gifts on you and, if you’ll let me, I’d like to
show you a special place along the beach front.”

Carl
remembered the hypnotically effect she had previously tried on him, but was
taken back by her soft approach. Her
attractiveness could not be denied and Carl felt once again as he had on the
first night he’d seen her. He could feel
his guard dropping and so with a nod of his head, he agreed. Moments later he was dressed and heading for
the door.

9

“Quick,”
whispered Elliot as he grabbed Dani’s hand and dragged her away from Carl’s
door. The two watched from inside a
bathroom at the end of the hall as the door to Carl’s room opened and Rain left
through it followed by Carl. They were
talking to each other in relaxed tones, causing Dani and Elliot to look at each
other in disbelief.

When
Carl had walked Rain out of earshot, Dani spoke. “I thought he was mad at her?!”

“Apparently
he’s forgiven her..?” Elliot guessed.

Dani
cuffed Elliot on the arm. “No! Use your mind, make sure she’s not tricking
him again!”

“I
did. When we were outside his door I
could feel her in there. She wasn’t
using her telepathy or hypnotherapy, she’s using nothing except what nature
gave her to seduce him this time.”

“There
has to be a reason for it. What could
she want to accomplish this time?!” Dani prowled.

Elliot
shook his head as he stepped from their hiding place. “He’s a good looking guy, she’s a beautiful
woman. Maybe there’s nothing going on
except a relief to the boredom we’re gonna have to endure for the next few
days.”

Now
it was Dani’s turn to shake her head. “I
don’t know… Nothing here feels right.”

Elliot
smiled and asked, “Does it feel wrong?”

Dani
screwed up her face and then answered. “No.
Not if I’m honest. I can’t put my
finger on it. Something’s going on, but
I can’t sense any danger to us.”

Dani
nodded as she turned and walked towards the staircase, Elliot sliding his friendly
arm around her as they went.

10

Rain
had shown Carl to the dining room where he had breakfast in her company. Her eyes seemed to sparkle at him as he ate,
listening to her talk about the night she’d first seen him in the club and how
even without her psychic powers, she’d have known that he was the man she was
looking for. Breakfast was over quickly
or at least that’s how it felt for Carl, as in no time at all Rain was leading
him from the house and out from the grounds, onto the soft sand. It was another beautiful day on the island
owned by Mr Leóni. A private paradise on
which Carl could feel his guard naturally lowering, this island and its
tropical surroundings eased his mind, as this utopia would anyone who came
here.

Rain
was wearing her outfit that left little to Carl’s imagination. She looked beautiful in the tone of blue that
matched a lighter shade than her eyes, a style of dressing she seemed to
prefer. Looking back over her shoulder
from beneath a fringe of blonde hair, she flashed Carl a suggestive smile,
without him knowing that her mind was slowly sliding into his thoughts,
beginning to make him want her more than he already did.

They
made small talk for a while, talking about the island and the beautiful day,
until they were a distance from the house.
By now Carl was feeling very relaxed and Rain, walking barefoot, had
slowed the pace so that she could walk as close to Carl as possible.

“Rain… Where did you get that name from?” Carl asked
as they walked.

“Don’t
you like it?” she questioned coyly, stopping and turning to face him.

Carl
smiled and ran his eyes over her. “It’s
okay.”

Rain
forced her will just a tiny bit into Carl’s mind and that was all it took. Leaning his head down to hers he kissed her,
their lips only lightly brushing at first.
They kissed again but this time harder, their arms wrapping around one
another in a gentle embrace. He kissed
the edge of her mouth and then worked his way down to her neck, slowly kissing
her down to the tops of her shoulders and up again. His hands stroked her back and slid down to
the tops of her legs, softly turning her by her hips and gently twisting her to
the ground. They slid to the soft sand
with her beneath him, still clinging to him with her arms wrapped tightly
around his neck, holding their lips together with long passionate kisses. Slipping an arm around Rain’s shoulder’s,
Carl shifted his weight to support himself on his elbow as his free hand gently
stroked her hips and stomach.

Something
happened in the next few moments that Rain had not been prepared for. Somehow, the passion she was inducing in Carl
and could feel emanating from him backfired in her mind and lit a fire in her
blood. Feeling as though she might
ignite at any moment, she began pulling at his clothes until he was half naked
in her arms.

His
hand began to explore her, exciting her as his fingers slowly traced lines
across her skin, moving between her thighs.

The
rest of their clothes slid off and the passion within them both continued to
increase as Carl rolled on top of her and forcing himself inside her, began a
gentle rhythm. The motion quickly
increased and her arms around him tightened, her body beginning to
tremble.

For
Rain, the act of intimacy was different than if she were a normal woman. Where Carl could only enjoy the physical part
of their connection, Rain could open her mind and enter Carl’s thoughts. She knew exactly what he wanted and when he
wanted it and through her will, she could manipulate Carl into doing exactly
what she desired him to do.

Carl
could feel her at the edge of his mind, but under such distraction he was
powerless to do anything but obey, knowing to touch her where she wanted to be
touched and kissing her all over her body as she wordlessly directed him.

The
powder fine sand began to stick to her back as the heat smothered her, building
her up towards her first moment of ecstasy with him. Rain willed Carl on, guiding his mind and
thus instructing his body until her moment came. As the first wave of passion passed, a small
piece of control returned to her and Rain remembered that it was Carl that
should be on the receiving end of her passion. She was supposed to be manipulating him into
revealing his inner most thoughts and suspicions to her. Her telepathy would let her instruct him like
all other telepaths, would allow her to get a basic read on his thoughts. But there was no way she could take
everything she wanted from his mind without using a considerable amount of her
own power. That in turn would make
Elliot aware of what was going on and destroy any trust Carl may build for
her. No, the best way to gain this man’s
trust was to seduce him.

Forcing
herself into line, Rain gave Carl what he needed. She rolled sharply over to straddle him,
looking deeply into his eyes she rode him, feeling the pleasure in his mind as
well as his body. His hands continued to
distract her, massaging her thighs and travelling all over her body until once
again she lost her concentration.

Loosing
herself in the moment Rain forgot her objective and let herself go once
more. Heat exploded from her and as it
did her mind snatched at Carl’s thoughts, forcing from him a lustful
release.

When
she could feel his pleasure calming and relaxation smothering him, she slipped
down to his side and laid her head on his chest. They lay together on the sand, both exhausted
and relaxed to the point of snoozing.

Resting
her head on his chest, Rain decided that she could learn things from him in his
dreams by manipulating them in the way he would not allow when he was
awake. In his dreams her power would go
unnoticed by Elliot as she would be closer to a subconscious level. She began to concentrate on Carl’s breathing,
the slow rhythm of the rise and fall of his chest, the sound of the ocean tide
in the distance. These things and her
well-disciplined mind allowed her to put herself in a sleep-like trance, her
telepathy allowing her to enter Carl’s mind.
Asleep as he was with his guard down and his mind open, she was easily
able to slip into Carl’s dream.

11

Rain
watched from the distance as various men walked into Carl’s dream life. She could feel his sense of loss and through
each change of scenery and each memory, this one feeling remained
constant. The clarity of each part of
Carl’s dream remained the same for Rain, as in her spectator role and with her
own powerful mind connected to his, she could surround herself with the
equivalent of a computer’s image enhancer.
Using her own mind to tidy things up and clean the edges of his rough
memories with things that, although may not be accurate and true to his memory,
would serve the purpose to complete the fictional world she was in. Should she decide to reveal herself to Carl
in his dream, then she merely needed to step in from the edges of his
conscious. If Rain wanted to manipulate
the dream, then she only need increase her own input and change the dream world
around them both.

However,
this being the first time that Rain had entered Carl’s dreams it would not be
wise to direct things. She could learn
little and the attempt could well fail altogether. If Carl should wake up and break their connection
he would know what she had done, wasting her efforts from the earlier part of
the day. No, now was the time for Rain to
simply watch his dreams.

Carl
felt no familiarity in his dream even though these same events unfolded before
him as those in his previous dream. The
man in the park, his training instructor and finally his father, all coming to
him at the different stages of his life.
The lucid feeling came to Carl with the appearance of his father, as
around him things became more vivid than a dream should be.

Carl
was standing with his father in Leóni’s house, outside Leóni’s study. But this time Carl’s father did not try to
talk to him, instead leading him away and back to the main hall. His father walked continually looking over
his shoulder, making sure that Carl followed, until they passed the library and
walked down into the opposite wing of the house.

Rain
watched silently from the very edge of the dream as Carl followed this newest
man through the house. As she watched,
Rain felt a strange sensation wrap around her, as if something else was in the
dream with them. She followed at a
distance, keeping herself small and her presence masked. She crept along blurring herself from Carl’s
thoughts, following the two men until she suddenly recognised the feeling
around her. This was not something that
Carl had created in his dream, this was something else like her – something
invading the dream! Although whom and
why Rain did not know, instead she knew that if she stayed just a little
longer, she could find out. Rain watched
as the two figures reached the end of the corridor and turned right, opening
the door before them. This would lead
them downstairs into the wine cellar, so waiting a few seconds for them to
leave the staircase, Rain followed them down into the darkness. As she crept onto the stairs she reached out
with her mind, searching for the two others and it was then that she noticed
the bond between the two. Rain was
suddenly caught off guard as she realised that the other presence had now taken
control of the dream and was creating it as they went. She was not sure what to do at this point and
so decided instead to concentrate on the identity of this invading telepath –
could it be Elliot from wherever he was on the island? Rain locked onto to the presence guiding Carl
and felt something strong between them as she did. Recognising the feelings between the two,
Rain was soon able to guess the identity of this man – but this could not
be! The other presence she could feel
could not be him, could not be who she suspected it was – he was dead!

12

Edward
Blain led his son through the basement of the house, passing through the small
maze of the wine cellar and into the next room.
Edward created the dream in vivid clarity for his son and even though
Carl had never been below the house in reality, he was now seeing it as it was
in the real world.

They
walked from the dimly lit wine cellar into a room that smelled of old paper
ledgers and was piled high with dusty books and worn scarps of parchment. This was a research room that Leóni had been
using, collecting all information he could that was in any way connected to his
infatuation with the mysteries of life and death. The documents here ranged in age from modern
studies to ancient texts, from religious belief to actual historical claims. The room was well-lit and had a main corridor
through the shelves with a circular vault door leading to another room in front
of them. Opening the heavy door, Edward
stepped to one side and allowed Carl to enter first. Inside the large vault of a room Carl saw the
finished Dream Carrier’s shell, a few access panels open with circuitry and
wires on display, ready to be worked on.
The machine was on the very verge of completion.

“Son. This is what I needed to show you,” said
Edward as he circled around the machine to where a sole book lay on a work
surface.

Carl
opened the book and even in the dream saw that it was written in Russian and
seemed to contain unreadable paragraphs with a name connected to each. Carl looked to his father. “I don’t understand, what are you trying to
tell me?”

“As
I told you last night, you’re-” Edward looked sharply at the door to the
room. “She’s here – I can tell you no
more now. I’ll try again though!”

Carl
looked at the door and saw Rain walk through.
Turning back to his father, Carl saw that he was gone.

As
she entered the room, Rain realised too late what would happen. The sudden disappearance of the other
presence that had been controlling the dream, especially if it was indeed
Edward Blain, would be enough to snap Carl out of his dream. Instantly she opened her eyes and forced her
willpower upon the sleeping Carl, hoping she could keep him from waking
up.

13

The
smile melted from Elliot’s face and he looked deeply into Dani’s eyes.

“What
is it?” she asked, beginning to blush at the intensity of his stare.

“Rain.”

“Rain?!” Dani looked up at the sky and then back to
Elliot, smiling playfully as she did.

“No,
I’m serious. She’s just used the
equivalent of a mental sledge hammer on Carl…
But I don’t know why.”

“With
just us and the few others at the house on this island, could you find Carl
from here and see if he’s okay?”

Elliot
shrugged.

Taking
his hands in hers, Dani sat down on the sand pulling him down beside her. “Try!”

Falling
to the sand, Elliot sat cross legged mirroring Dani’s pose and closed his
eyes. He slowed his breathing, relaxed,
concentrating on Carl and sent his mind out in search of their friend. “Not at the house,” Elliot announced, Dani
looking on with concerned eyes.

After
a few moments Elliot whispered, “He’s on the beach… She’s with him but… Everything is fine. He’s asleep.
Relaxed. Dreaming.” Elliot opened his eyes and stared at
Dani. “Maybe it was just me –still a
little edgy when it comes to Rain– but I’m sure I felt something.”

“But
there’s nothing going on now?”

Elliot
shook his head. “No. They’re both fine and peaceful.”

“Phew!”
said Dani with a smile.

Elliot
sighed. “Mm, I think though we’ll talk
to Carl about this. See if he’s aware of
anything.”

“Yeah,
okay,” Dani agreed as she stood and pulled Elliot back to his feet. “But Carl’s a big boy, I’m sure he’ll be
okay. Now come on! I want to see what’s up there!”

Elliot
rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“You’re like a big kid sometimes.”

“What? This is cool!
A whole island to ourselves to explore is excellent!”

Following
Dani away towards the rocks she was curious about, Elliot silently admitted to
himself – playing explorers on the island together was fun.

14

When
Carl woke up it was to the comfort of Rain still in his arms and the late
afternoon sun shining down upon them.
She was asleep with her dress draped over her legs. Gently, he squeezed her and kissed the top of
her head lightly, stirring her from her slumber. They lay together for a few more minutes,
relaxed by the ocean tide until Rain asked quietly. “You worked protecting the Dream Carrier… Did they ever tell you how it works?”

“How
it works?” Carl echoed.

Rain
was at once relaxed at the calmness in Carl, relieved he did not remember her
presence in his dream. “I know it needs
a hypnotist to operate it and that it’s supposed to amplify the memories of a
person’s soul, but how can it do that?
All your memories are stored in your head, inside your brain, not your
soul.”

“I
asked Romonovski that once myself and he told me his theory behind it. He said, you know how when a person dies,
their whole life flashes before their eyes?
Well, he believed it wasn’t the whole life, just the most significant
events of that life. The things that
mean the most or that literally dominated that person’s mind or their heart,
these things he believed, were etched into a person’s soul from their memory
and taken with them on to… Well, just,
onwards.”

“Oh,”
answered Rain in a disappointed tone. “I
expected some sort of great scientific explanation for it.”

“It’s
just a theory, but because this is a kinda tricky subject to get proof for, no
one can prove otherwise.” Carl began to
get to his feet. “Life is a mystery,” he
concluded as he pulled Rain up beside him.
The two of them dressed and walked back to the mansion in the setting
sun, her arm around his waist, his arm draped casually across her shoulders. Every now and then Rain would lean in closer,
stroking Carl’s chest and provoking more affection from him in return, all
seriousness from their previous conversation forgotten.

Rain
was not sure what had happened, how exactly she had allowed feelings for Carl
to creep up inside her. She felt somehow
safe with him, even though she knew that she was far more capable of defending
herself than he could ever be. Her mental
strengths were awesome and like those of all psychics, her powers grew considerably
on instinct when she was in danger. But
right now, thoughts of danger were farthest from her mind. Roberto, although many things to her
including her employer, had never created such feelings in her. She knew his plans in as much detail as he did. Knowing he could hide nothing from her, he
had shared everything with her, his plan to use the Dream Carrier to submerge
himself in his previous life and learn everything would almost certainly
work. The man he had been had been
powerful and with those memories Roberto himself could become the most powerful
man on Earth. Rain’s mind raced as she
thought for a way to include Carl in those plans. There must be a way that she could neutralise
Elliot and be able to bring Carl completely under her control… But then, was that what she wanted? No.
She wanted him to love her because of who she was, not because of her
mental grip on his mind. There had to be
a way for Roberto to find room in his plans for Carl and there had to be a way
of hiding the truth of those plans from him – at least until he was so in love
with her that it would not matter to him what Roberto Leóni was trying to
do. She was confident that Leóni would
not care about any feelings that developed between Carl and herself. Leóni had only ever wanted brief moments of
sexual satisfaction from women, which with her powerful mind she had convinced
him he had experienced. With Carl it was
different – she wanted to experience these things with Carl.

Rain
looked up as they reached the doors to the house, knowing that Elliot and Dani
were near. Moments later they entered
into the library through the rear of the house and both Elliot and Dani looked
up from their conversation.

At
that precise moment a mental shockwave blasted through the psychic
airwaves. The impact of the psychic
blast and its unexpected appearance caught all three psychics off guard.

The
pain of the blast made Elliot inhale sharply, while Dani closed her eyes and
raised a hand to her head, although by the time her fingers touched her skin
she had recovered.

Rain
staggered into Carl’s arms and he quickly responded, holding her to him and
keeping her upright. As quickly as it
had come the blast was gone and both Elliot and Rain recovered.

They
both looked to the other man in the room and Elliot placed his hands together, hidden
under his folded arms. “Carl, if you’ll
permit me, I can scan your mind for outside interference. I’ll be able to detect any suggestions that
have been planted. Will you allow me to
do that?”

“It’s
okay Carl, you don’t need to be any closer.
Please, return to your seat.”

Carl
did as Elliot suggested, aggressively throwing himself back into the
chair.

Elliot’s
focus shifted to something that only he seemed to be able to see and he entered
Carl’s mind. The thoughts he encountered
were disciplined like the man that created them. Elliot sensed a great deal of emotional
stirring in respects to Rain and he became aware of what had happened during
that day. After only a few seconds
Elliot broke the contact and blinked slowly.
Shaking his head Elliot affirmed his findings. “She’s put no new ideas into your mind, my
friend. It seems instead that everything
that happened today was already on your mind.”

“There,
you see!” Carl cried turning back to Dani.

“I
see – it’s just a shame you don’t,” Dani retorted.

Carl
was again on his feet but Elliot quickly cut off any reply he was about to make.
“Carl, there is one thing I must ask
you.” Softly putting his will into his
words and forcing them into Carl’s mind, the telepath prevented Carl’s emotions
from rising against Dani and instead commanded his full attention.

“Yes,
Elliot?”

“Earlier
today, I felt a heavy psychic tremor as Rain did something to you and whatever
it was, it was something powerful. Do
you remember what that was?”

Calmly,
Carl looked to the carpeted floor as he searched his memory. “No. I
don’t remember her doing anything to me.
We slept through the afternoon together and you yourself said there was
nothing she’d put into my mind.”

Elliot
nodded in acceptance. “Which leads me to believe that she put you to
sleep. I can’t think why she would do
that. Tell me, can you remember what you
dreamt?”

Carl’s
eyes flicked between Elliot and Dani.
“It was about my father.”

“Your
father?” echoed Dani. “You told us on
the train… Has Leóni told you what
happened yet?”

Having
regained further calmness via Elliot, Carl peacefully answered. “Yes.
He said my father was working as a bodyguard for his father,
Roberto Leóni Senior. I thought this was
a lie at first because my father had been an agent, not a bodyguard, but then
Leóni told me that the reason his father had a bodyguard was to protect him in
his business, and one of the projects in that business was the design and
construction of the original Dream Carrier.”

“The
original Dream Carrier?” questioned Elliot.

“Yeah,
apparently this thing’s design has been around for decades. My father had been sent in undercover by the
government to learn as much as he could about the project and find out if it
was a reality or just all theoretical or something like that. The thing is, once it was proved to work, the
government made arrangements to take the invention from Leóni’s father and
compensate him. Leóni said his dad was
fine with this, but when the inventor of the machine, a guy called Hans Bronkoff
found out, he went mad. He killed my
father in cold blood.”

There
was a moment of silence as the story set in before Dani spoke. “I’m sorry Carl.”

“No,
it’s okay. I’m glad now that I finally
know the truth,” Carl eased with a nervous laugh.

“You
said you’d dreamt about your father,” Elliot prompted.

Carl
nodded. “Twice. But both times now, I wake up and I can’t
remember what he said. I have this
terrible feeling that it was important, but I just can’t remember.”

“But
how can you even be dreaming about a man you’ve never met?” asked Dani.

“Pictures
my mother had, a photo from a file. I
know what my father looked like.”

“But
still Dani is right,” said Elliot, “you shouldn’t be having dreams about him
that are making you feel un-easy. I’m
wondering now if Rain knows about these dreams and if so, does that itself mean
anything?”

“I
don’t know,” admitted Carl truthfully.

The
three sat in silence, contemplating the meanings of these dreams.

“Carl,
would you be willing to let me enter your dreams with you? Perhaps I can learn what it is that they
mean, where they are coming from. The
fact that you’re choosing now to have dreams about your father that are related
to the Dream Carrier worries me. That
machine is more powerful than most people realise… Together, Dani and I might even be the best
combination to try this.”

Carl
flicked his eyes between Elliot and Dani.
“I’m not sure. Let me think about
it. If the dreams carry on, then we’ll
see.”

15

Rain
slipped into the workshop containing the almost completed Dream Carrier and
approached Roberto Leóni, as he directed a technician to completing the final
adjustments and turned to face her.

“I’ve
done as you asked,” Rain confirmed.

“And?”

Rain
hesitated before answering. “He’s loyal
to us. He doesn’t suspect a thing.”

For
only the briefest moment, she wondered if Leóni believed her and then his face
broke into a smile and his hand brushed her cheek. “Well done.
I’m leaving tonight for the mainland.
I decided to do a press conference in person. There’s also the first of my guests to be
collected and brought back here to use the Dream Carrier, so I won’t be back
for a couple of days.”

“It’s
finished then?”

“Almost,
my darling, almost. By the time I leave
in an hour, it will be and I’ll have the proof I need that the Dream Carrier
really does work.”

Rain
looked at the great metallic shell gleaming in the artificial lights of the
workshop. The blurred reflections of the
technician danced on its surface, making the machine itself seem almost self-aware. In the views of the almost completed model,
this new version of the former Dream Carrier flaunts a sleekly desire, smartly
displayed a modern screen for the desired user, and operated beside in a required
second place, connected only via a single, wireless attachment.

“What
should I do?”

“Exactly
what you have been doing; keep them here, make sure they don’t use their powers
for anything naughty and I want you to guarantee Blain’s loyalty. Do what you must… Have a little fun if you like, but make sure
he’s not suspicious and that he’ll follow you over the other two if, or when,
push comes to shove.” With that Leóni
turned his back on her and faced his glorious machine.

Leóni
looked at the unnoticed people he had identified to be his test subjects; an
old woman in her eighties, and a second, much younger girl under her teens both
brought through hospitality onto the island earlier that day. If what he suspected was true, then his test
would offer excellent and almost irrefutable proof to the Dream Carrier’s abilities.

A
short while later, the Dream Carrier was used on its first trial test run via its
current design. Carried out with Rain as
the operator, she hypnotised the user of the youthful age, while both Leóni and
the older woman in her eighties viewed. Observing
the digital screen, the older lady shed a tear in recognition of seeing her passed
away mother. The child’s Dream Carrier
experience portrayed herself as the older lady’s mother herself.

Witnessing
through the Dream Carrier was extremely emotional and during which, Leóni
smiled in scientific involvement. And once
complete, Leóni was in possession of the results he desired.

Chapter
Nine – August 19th 2099,
08:07

1

Carl
opened his eyes and in a heartbeat the conversation he’d had with his father
had once again slipped from his memory.
The dream had ended the same, his father leading him through the house
and to the Dream Carrier that Leóni had built, but once again Carl was unable
to remember what his father had said.
The feeling of importance was still with him, an overwhelming sense that
something needed to be done, but still Carl did not know what it was in his
dream that triggered the urgency he felt.

Rain
wriggled slightly in his arms and then whispered, “Good morning.”

The
sense of urgency faded from Carl as Rain rolled over to him, a smile on her
sleepy face. “You were restless last
night, did you have a bad dream?” she asked.

“No,
go on, tell me. I studied dreams when I
first mastered my telepathy, I might be able to help you interpret them.” Although Rain was telling the truth about her
dream studies, she was lying about being able to help. Until she herself knew what was going on and
why the spirit of Edward Blain was visiting his son, she had no intention of
sharing information with anyone.

“I
keep dreaming about my father, even though he died just before I was born,”
Carl admitted. “The same dream every
night lately. In it, he’s always trying
to tell me something, but when I wake up I can never remember what he
said.”

“Hmm,
that’s quite strange. Is there, anything
I can do to make you feel better?” Rain offered suggestively.

As
a smile crept onto Carl’s face she slipped her leg over his hip and leaned in
close to him. They kissed gently, the
sleepiness about them now wearing off as their passion for each other awoke. They were both naked beneath the bed sheets
and as their bodies rubbed against one another, the cover was soon kicked aside. The fresh morning air expelled the cool chill
of the night and in only a few moments Rain’s back began to glisten with the
heat she was feeling, laying on top of Carl.
His fingers ran roughly through her hair holding her head back as he
kissed her throat, moving his lips along her neck and down to her
shoulders. A moan escaped her as he
forced himself inside her and her hands gripped the bed sheets, kneading them
in her fists. Rain sat up and leaned
back as Carl’s hands moved to her hips and began stroking her legs.

Carl
made her feel so good, so relaxed that she let herself go completely, losing
herself in the moment. It seemed that
although she had power over Carl’s mind in a subtle way, he too had power over
her but in a physical way of his own. Lost in Carl’s arms she fell forward with a
whimper allowing him to roll her over and continue on, sending waves of
satisfaction through her. Rain tried to
connect herself into Carl’s mind to complete her experience and draw his
feelings for her even closer, exploding them out into an unquestioning loyalty
to her, but her mind was quivering as much as her body and she found she could
not concentrate. In an almost mentally
numb state, she wrapped her arms and legs around Carl clamping herself around
him until he could no longer control himself and was forced to his finish. Out of breath and glistening with sweat, the
two lay in each other’s arms. Holding
him close to her, Rain heard herself whisper, “I love you,” without even
knowing that the words were there. After
she had said them she did not regret it, as she realised it was the truth she
had only now revealed to herself.

In
return Carl moved his head to look deeply into her eyes and with a kiss like no
other, he returned the sentiment.

2

“Quick! What’s that?!” cried Elliot as he pointed off
towards the beach.

Dani
looked away from her breakfast plate, off to where Elliot was pointing but she
saw nothing. When she looked back to her
breakfast, the last strawberry in her fruit salad was gone. With a yelp of shock and outrage her mouth
fell open and she turned to face Elliot.

“What?”
he giggled out with a shrug.

Dani
slapped his shoulder harder than she would have normally, as she had been
saving that strawberry for last and looking forward to it the most. Any further punishment was abruptly cut short
by the arrival of Carl and Rain – hand in hand.

Everyone
said good morning to everyone else as Carl sat down, Rain hovering at his
side.

A
second later Dani heard Elliot in her mind asking, “What’s going on?!”

Dani
answered with a subtle shake of her head, herself not knowing.

“Mr
Leóni won’t be available for a day or so as he’s gone to give a press
conference in person, regarding his new Dream Carrier.”

“And
regarding you two?” Elliot asked casually.

“Mind
you own business,” Rain replied as politely as one could say such words. She then turned on her heel and walked back
into the house, leaving the three of them alone on the patio to enjoy their
breakfast.

Carl
smiled broadly to his friends and reached for some toast.

“Okay,”
said Elliot shaking his head. “This may
be a stupid question now, but did you have any dreams again last night?”

“Or
didn’t you get any sleep?” Dani asked with a smile on the corner of her
lips.

“I
slept,” Carl confirmed with a mouthful of toast, “a little,” he then added in a
mumble.

“And
your dreams?” Elliot prompted.

Carl’s
manner became serious again now. “The
same again. I’ve thought about what you
suggested yesterday, about entering the dream with me. If you think you can do it, then I’d like to
try tomorrow night.”

Elliot
looked to Dani for confirmation and she nodded.
“Anytime you’re ready Carl. What
we’ll do is Dani will hypnotise you and keep you under while I use one hundred
percent of my telepathy to get into your mind.”

“If
you don’t mind me asking,” Dani said with a smile, “why not tonight?”

“I
want to wait because I’m not sure about Rain anymore. There’s something different about her. As you can see, we’ve got a thing going on
and I get the impression she started it to get to me. But…”

“What?”
asked Dani.

“I
don’t know. I think she’s fallen for
me. I don’t want to sound big headed,
but I just don’t think she’s that good an actress.”

“But
she is that good a telepath. She
could be making you think this!”

“No,”
Elliot cut in decisively. “Since we
broke free of her initial block of our powers, I haven’t felt her try to
control any one of us with her mind – except for yesterday, but you told us she
only put you to sleep. Whatever you’re
feeling and thinking Carl, it’s coming from you, not an idea she’s put in your
mind.”

“Hmm,”
Carl thought loudly to himself.

“Carl?”
Dani called. “What is it you’re thinking
and feeling?”

“I’m
thinking Leóni told her to get
to me… But I’m feeling I’ve got to
her. I don’t know. I need more time to be sure.” Carl got up from the table, but before he
walked away he turned back to them. “She
told me she loved me this morning. Can
you tell, if she’s… if she’s telling the truth?”

Dani
looked away with a shake of her head, but Elliot held Carl’s stare.

At
that moment Rain walked briskly from the house back out to the breakfast patio
and moments later had walked into Carl’s open arms. He kissed her lightly and turned her, walking
with her back into the house. A step
before they reached the doorway, Carl flicked his head back around and glanced
at Elliot, who nodded once using his eyes more than his head in an almost
unnoticeable gesture.

Rain
felt a slight intrusion into her emotions, but as the attack had attempted to
take nothing from her mind she dismissed it without a second thought.

Carl
walked with Rain into the house and he suddenly felt nervous. He had not believed that she might really be
in love with him.

3

Approximately
a thousand miles away from his island, in the nation’s capital of Washington
D.C., Mr Roberto Leóni prepared himself for his press conference. The people of the world had been previously
led to believe that the Dream Carrier was a fraud and that its creator Dr
Romonovski had failed in his work.
Romonovski’s disappearance had done little to change his point of view,
and with the government firmly in control of the Dream Carrier project,
information released had been carefully filtered. Requests for more details were sent into
channels that would see that they were never granted, as people were
discouraged from pursuing any interest with the Dream Carrier at all.

The
Dream Carrier was seen by those with influence as a powerful tool not to be
wasted on the general public, but now Mr Leóni had constructed his own machine
and he knew that this news would be met with controversy. The cold hard facts he had prepared would be
enough to convince the public he knew, but he still held some doubt as to
whether his evidence was proof enough, to stand up to any accusations of
falsehood that the government itself could create to discredit him. Were they to choose such a course, the
government’s denial to the authenticity of his claims could be a serious
complication in his plan. Time would
soon tell and he was certain enough that he was willing to take the
gamble.

With
his own Dream Carrier offered for public use, the government would again bring
forth their own machine to prevent Leóni from having sole control. Leóni expected that offers would be made for
him to ‘withdraw’ his machine from public use or risk having it confiscated,
but he was prepared for this, for in truth Leóni wished for only a few dozen
people that he had already identified to use his Dream Carrier. On condition that he could do this for his
own research he would gladly co-operate with the officials.

“It’s
time Mr Leóni,” a worker stated from the broadcast studio where his conference
was to be recorded and broadcasted out.

With
a nod Leóni acknowledged the woman and followed her out towards the stage.

The
press conference was being held in a reasonably large studio hall with representatives
from all the major newspapers and several of the larger visual screens and popular
radio stations, many people predicted to having an interest in what this
millionaire man had to say about the Dream Carrier.

Tiny
microphones and digital cameras did not phase Leóni in the least as he walked
confidently to the centre of the stage.

“Good
Morning,” he began looking into the various cameras. “I have called you here today to go on record
with a statement and reveal that the Dream Carrier project has been
re-started… by me.”

Those
busy transmitting Mr Leóni’s speech focused on his first words.

“You
will of course be wondering why I have invested in a machine that has been
previously proved to be a failure. To
answer this I will show you a recording of a test I carried out using the Dream
Carrier I have constructed at personal expense, and together with the noted
results of various other cases, which I today offer to you as new proof, I will
go on record to claim that the Dream Carrier does in fact work.

“The
denial of these facts by our government is not something I can speculate on, as
anything I could say that relates to the conspiracy theorist ideas would be
purely speculation. The claims made
about the original Dream Carrier and its failure may be true – with regards to that
particular machine. I am simply here to
tell you that my Dream Carrier works.

“I
will now prove this by showing you my test film.” Leóni nodded and the footage cut from the recording
he had of his test results.

The
recording showed Rain waiting by the operating station of a sleek Dream Carrier
as an old woman was positioned in front of the viewing screen with Mr Leóni at
her side. The test subject, a much
younger girl under her teens was then brought in and seated at the Dream
Carrier. In moments Rain had sent her
into a trance and the screen showing what the young girl was experiencing
through the Dream Carrier came to life.

“As
you can see from the time and date in the corner of the screen,” explained Mr
Leóni, “what you’re seeing is footage of an experiment conducted only last
night. The elderly lady you can see was
involved in a car accident some thirty three years ago, in which she suffered
the loss of her mother. I believe the
young girl using the Dream Carrier to be the reincarnation of her mother.”

In
the footage Rain used the Dream Carrier and manipulated the memories shown
through it to find those that Mr Leóni was searching for. Various images of the past showed on the
screen as the old lady looked on with undisguised hope in her eyes as she
recognised brief flashes of memory among the images. The picture on the Dream Carrier’s monitor
cleared and showed the point of view from a person driving a car. The picture of sharp pixel resolution was
also of darkness, and Leóni explained the reason for that was because the car had
been driven at night. The clarity of the
screen was perfect and although the image was shaded, it could still be
identified without scepticism.

The
older woman’s reaction also left no room for doubt as her hands shot up to her
mouth in shock, the pain of those horrid moments buried for so many years, now
flooding back to the surface of her mind.

Everyone
watched in silence as the film unfolded, showing the car driving along a quiet
country road innocently enough, and then from nowhere a second car hurtled
around a sharp bend ahead and crashed in a head-on collision with the
viewpoint. The perspective of the images
slammed forward and suddenly went dark.

The
young girl in the Dream Carrier opened her eyes and sat bolt upright, Rain
quickly calming her and returning her into a hypnotic trance, wiping the
horrific memory from her conscious.

The
older lady had got to her feet and after shuffling slowly forwards, was
standing in awe next to the younger girl.
The camera view cut away from the Dream Carrier and moved around so that
the audience could see the look on the elderly woman’s face as she stared down
at the other, still seated in the Dream Carrier’s chair. The look she held was one of utter
amazement. Slowly that look changed into
one of affection as her hand gently stroked the forehead of her former mother. The footage faded to black and the image
ended.

Mr
Leóni faced back to the reporters. “I
have here the signed statements from both parties seen in the footage that what
they experienced was real and not some made up documentary for the purposes of
today. They have also agreed to be
available for direct interviews with any of you that may doubt my and indeed
their claims, but due to the age of Mrs Smith –the elderly lady in the footage–
they are not here with me today.

“I
also have the records of other such cases from the original Dream Carrier, which were rapidly seized by officials and claimed of fraud before
they were put forward. I will make such
files available to you all after this press conference. But above all, I offer the most legitimate
proof possible. I offer you, the general
public the chance to use my Dream Carrier.”

There
was a brief commotion, a mixture of shock and excitement at Mr Leóni’s offer,
which he silenced with hushing gestures to the crowds of reporters. “One month from today, I will make my machine
available to the general public.”

The
excited atmosphere in the room increased as people began looking around at each
other in stunned conversation, and as the statement was ended, the questions
began within a wrapped cluster;

“How were you able to build
a Dream Carrier? Why would the
government lie? How could you identify
which people to use for your proof? Where
is the Dream Carrier you’ve built? Why
must people wait a month? What made you
build your own Dream Carrier? What do
you think the government will say to you about this?”

To
these questions Leóni responded without hesitation, his answers confident as he
had anticipated all that had been asked.

Mr
Leóni joked about how he had been able to build a Dream Carrier, neatly
sidestepping the question by saying luck was on his side. He confessed he did not know why the
government had claimed their machine did not work. He briefly explained his theories on
identifying people to use for Dream Carrier test subjects and made another joke
about the dozens he had been wrong about.
As to where and when the Dream Carrier could be used he only promised
that time would tell. Leóni admitted
that he had built a Dream Carrier himself, based on his own beliefs that it
worked. But for the final question, he
offered no true answer. He simply looked
at the cameras on him and asked his own question. “What will they
say indeed?”

4

Kevin
Stenton, Director of Special Operations division under the Central Intelligence
Agency, walked briskly down the corridor of the Black Ops division corridor and
marched into the office of his subordinate.
“Did you have any idea about this?!” he demanded of John Matthews, as he
held up a portable imager screen displaying a newspaper cover with the headline;
“NEW DREAM CARRIER WORKS!”

Matthews
tried to explain. “We knew that
something had bee–”

“Never
mind! I should have known myself after
the break in. We can’t afford to be
connected to the scandal that this is going to create. If it comes out that we were connected to
this and worse, that we were trying to silence those involved, we’ll be in a
real shit storm. I don’t have the time
to deal with another mistake, I want everything that connected us to this thing
gone!”

“Yes
Sir Mr Stenton, I’ll pull the plug on all of it… But what about Agent Blain, Sir?”

“Forget
about Blain – another botched operation on him is the last thing we need. We identified him as part of the break-in
team so it’s safe to assume he’s in with this Leóni, and we can’t afford to
give him any more ammunition against us!
What if more of your men fail to get him and he forces a confession out
of them, on national
television?! If his guys want him back
in the Agency then I don’t want Blain being able to bring back anything more
about us than he already thinks he knows. Besides if Blain had something to say, it
would have been a part of this!” cried Stenton as he shook his screen out in
front of him.

Matthews
looked away.

Stenton
regained his composure with a deep breath and in a calmer voice said, “Don’t
let me down again, John. Mop this up and
get it done quickly.”

Looking
back at his superior John Matthews answered, “I’ll personally handle the
original Dream Carrier operators we still have, and will make sure that
everything connecting us to Green and Le Freau doesn’t exist.”

Kevin
Stenton nodded. “You do that,” and then
he left the office.

John
felt tense after the grilling from the man at the top of the Black Ops food
chain. This whole Dream Carrier thing
had gotten way out of hand and he knew as soon as his men had failed to get the
last two operators that something was wrong.
Failing to get Blain as well had left a wide open wound in his
side. John let out a deep sigh feeling
relief that this project was drawing to a close, and as he shut his eyes his
phone rang with the call he had been expected for the last few hours.

“Mr
Matthews, as per your new orders, the removal team will be at your offices
first thing tomorrow morning to collect the Dream Carrier and move it to its
new location.”

“Excellent. See to it that everything is handled as
quickly as possible.”

“Yes
Sir.”

“And
confirm the recall of active agents.” John
hung up the phone feeling much better now that he knew the National Security Agency
would be taking the Dream Carrier project off of his hands. The whole issue of the Dream Carrier and what
it could do had made him uneasy, the subject of reincarnation being a religious
belief that he did not share. Now he
could finally wash his hands of it for good, as whatever NSA would do with the
project, it would have nothing further to do with him.

With
one final thought John scooped up his phone handle and issued his last project
connection. “Release all the enclosed
former operators under standard contract agreements, immediately. No further questions.”

Chapter
Ten – August 20th 2099,
13:33

1

It
was another beautiful day on the island, as Miss Sinclair opened the door to
the helicopter and her employer stepped out onto the sun-baked landing
pad.

Roberto
Leóni took a deep breath of fresh air and looked around at all he owned, his
father’s legacy and the money that came with it having provided his
surroundings. Being home again served to
lessen the disappointment he felt at not having been able to bring any of those
people he had wanted to use his Dream Carrier back with him. Although all had been interested, none had
wanted to return with him straight away, instead postponing plans and agreeing
to fly out in the future. The first was
due to arrive at the beginning of the following week, so Leóni would have until
then to make sure that all was in order in his house. Dani, Elliot and Carl would have either
agreed to join him by then or…

As
Leóni walked to his house he remained unsure of how to approach them. He doubted that any of the three would
willingly join him, but it seemed such a waste for them to turn him down. Still, if Rain had done as instructed, he
hoped that Blain at least would be with them.
He could see no way how Blain would have been able to resist the charms
of his hypnotist, even though she claimed her powers would be of no use while
Elliot Green was around. Mr Leóni
remained confident that Rain’s natural
charms and beauty would be enough.

He
walked into the rear of the house alone and passed through the library and into
the hall. Waiting for him was a member
of the house staff, who promptly greeted his employer and informed him that his
guests were out again, exploring the small island or on the beach. When Mr Leóni asked which it was, his man
told him that the guests seemed to always split into two pairs; Rain and Mr
Blain would go in one direction and Miss Le Freau and Mr Green would go in
another.

As
Mr Leóni walked away he pondered; did this mean that Blain was indeed under
Rain’s control, or that the other two could not be tempted to join him? The question would need to be answered as
quickly as possible.

Mr
Leóni reached the end of the corridor and entered through the door leading into
the basement under the house. He passed
through his wine cellar and his archives room and was finally face to face with
his machine once more. The Dream Carrier
stood before him in all of its glory and Mr Leóni stared affectionately at
it. With this machine he would recapture
his most important memories from his previous life. He would know everything of necessity and he
would once again continue what he had started.

2

Several
hours later, Mr Leóni seated himself at the dining table and patiently waited
for his guests to arrive. Moments later,
Rain led the three of them into the room and they were all seated, as Mr
Leóni’s staff began serving dinner.

Elliot
began. “It’s good to see you back, Mr
Leóni. May I ask if your trip was
successful?”

“Fairly,”
Leóni answered. “Although I was not able
to return with any one that I’ve identified as, err, useful possible
subjects for the Dream Carrier, I do have some excellent news for you. I have now been informed that the National Security
Agency has taken over the original Dream Carrier project and that the elements
that wished to apprehend,” he glanced at Carl, “or silence you, are no
longer an issue. My source tells me that
all connections between the Black Ops division and the Dream Carrier project
have been severed. You’re all three,
free to do as you will… Although I would
recommend discretion regarding your previous employment.”

Dani,
Elliot and Carl all smiled showing their relief to different extents.

“Thank
you Mr Leóni,” Elliot said with gratitude, and Dani quickly echoed his
sentiments.

“Without
your help,” Dani continued, “who knows where we would have ended up!”

“I
cannot take all this thanks! It was you
that took the risks in getting me the plans I needed to complete my own Dream
Carrier, so in a way, you set yourselves free.
I was merely the catalyst for that freedom.”

As
they all ate their meals, Mr Leóni noticed the connection between Rain and Carl
Blain. He could see from their constant
eye contact and the looks that they gave one another that she had indeed
succeeded in her mission – but was there something else there too? The way she looked at him… Mr Leóni could not be sure, but the idea
occurred to him that perhaps it was not Blain that was loyal to her, but she
that was loyal to him. If it were so,
this could be a problem and one he must stamp out quickly. This new possibility took precedence over the
offer he had been preparing to make the others.
He could not proceed with his plans without Rain’s loyalty to him
ensured and so must first confirm with her what was happening. Mr Leóni decided to say nothing of what he
intended until he could first speak with Rain.
Tomorrow would be good enough to discover the destinies of the others
and whether they would be joining him…
or not.

3

When
dinner was over and the polite conversation had edged closer to uncomfortable
silence, Mr Leóni suggested that his guests might retire for the evening, as
tomorrow he would need to discuss much with them. In the response of well-mannered guests both
Elliot and Dani accepted this proposal, rose and left. Carl on the other hand was far more hesitant,
looking quickly to Rain. Mr Leóni saw
the questioning look upon Carl’s face and quickly moved to assure him. “Don’t worry Mr Blain. I have business to conduct with Rain that
will steal her away from you tonight, but I promise she will be yours again
tomorrow.”

“But
I-”

“No,
please Mr Blain. I can see that the two
of you have begun an affair and my staff have confirmed this for me also. You have my complete blessing, but business is
business and tonight, business must be conducted.” Mr Leóni smiled and looked at Rain as he
spoke.

Running
a quick scan over his initial thoughts, Rain sensed nothing unusual in her
employer and so smiled back before looking to Carl and nodding once in
agreement.

Carl
rose from the table and kissed Rain on her cheek. “Goodnight Mr Leóni.”

“Pleasant
dreams to you, Mr Blain.”

For
a heartbeat Carl’s attention snapped back to his dreams and then he
acknowledged his host’s courtesy with a nod, disappearing from the room.

“Well?”
asked Mr Leóni a moment later.

“I’ve
done as you instructed,” Rain answered simply.

Mr
Leóni moved from the table and stood behind her, placing his hands on her
shoulders. As he began to massage her he
leant down and whispered in her ear. “And what exactly, did you do to follow these
instructions?” As he spoke, Leóni pulled
at the neck-line of Rain’s dress, sliding his hands onto her bare
shoulders.

Wriggling
free from the uncomfortable fondling, Rain stood up and turned to face her
employer. “You don’t need to worry about
Carl, he’ll do whatever I ask him to.”

The
dark look on Mr Leóni’s face suggested that he had not been truthful earlier
about giving his full blessings, and Rain hated the fact that she had ever let
him touch her. In her past before, she
should never have let him near her, should never
had accepted his fornication, and been his lover. Rain thought she was easily powerful enough
to incapacitate Leóni with simply her mental suggestion pushed into his
head!

As
this thought crossed Rain’s mind, Leóni seemed to be having the same ideas as
he took a step back and wiped the expression from his face.

“Come
then, Rain. I need you to operate the
Dream Carrier. I want to go much further
tonight and learn as much as possible.”
Without waiting for her reply, Leóni stalked off out of the room.

Rain
could feel a mixture of things coming from him towards her. Animosity at her actions with Carl, lustful
desire for her body, superiority at being able to order her about as an
employee, and in the corner of his mind, the tiniest amount of fear.

As
his footsteps began to fade, Rain raised and followed, going with Leóni to the
Dream Carrier.

She
watched in silence as he connected himself to the machine and then spoke to her
for the first time since they had left the dining room. “Begin as soon as you can.” He sounded cold, which was a new action in
his attitude towards her and one that she found she didn’t care about. Carl was waiting for her and that thought
made the unpleasant feelings Leóni created within her melt away. Perhaps she could even leave here with Carl? Rain liked this idea and looked forward to
finishing here so that she could suggest it to Carl. Rain was now ready to begin and so started her
hypnotic countdown with, “Three” as Mr Leóni closed his eyes and with a deep
breath, relaxed himself. “Two… One.”

4

Carl
had not even bothered going to his own room, instead heading straight for
Elliot’s, catching him just as he and Dani reached the door.

“I’m
worried about Rain – I don’t think she’s safe.”

Elliot
opened the door and motioned for the others to enter. Closing the door behind him, Elliot followed
them in and then addressed Carl’s statement.
“You cannot worry about her. She
has made her own decision to be here and has been using her power to keep
Leóni’s true intentions out of our grasp since we first arrived.”

“But
she’s changed,” insisted Carl. “A while
ago I would’ve agreed with you, but now, I just know she’s different and Leóni
knows it too.”

They
stood in silence for a moment. Then Dani
mumbled, almost to herself “She’s going to change everything for us.”

“What?!”
Carl demanded.

Unfazed
by his aggressive concern, Dani continued. “I can feel something big coming for us, for
all of us and I know that whatever it is, Rain is going to be in the middle of
it.”

“Good
or bad?” asked Elliot.

Dani
looked at him and answered, “Good.” But
then a heartbeat later she glanced at Carl and added, “And bad.”

“What
do you mean!” Carl sparked.

“I’m
sorry Carl, I can’t be specific. I can’t
sense any danger for Elliot and I, but something dark, something… I don’t know what exactly, is waiting for
you. And Rain is connected to it.”

Carl
looked away from her, not knowing what to make of this prediction.

Elliot stepped
towards him and spoke in a re-assuring voice. “Whatever it is Carl, Dani and I will help
you. I can see you feel deeply for Rain
even without using any of my power and I promise you, as your friend, I will
not allow harm to come to either of you if I can prevent it.”

“But
we don’t even know what it is!” Carl complained. “How can we be ready for it?”

Dani
moved closer, whispering quickly. “Your
dreams! You’ve been having the same
dream and in it you said your father is trying to tell you something. Maybe you do know what ‘it’ is.”

Carl
stared into her eyes, comprehending the meaning of what she was saying. Was the dream of his father trying to warn
him? And in that case did he somehow
know what was coming? It all seemed
impossible to him as he shook his head in disbelief.

“There’s a way to
find out,” Elliot reminded. “Let us into
your dreams Carl. Show me what your mind
is trying to tell you and I will control that memory and bring it into your
conscious mind.”

Carl
looked up at Elliot, then nodded.

“Okay,
here’s what we’ll do. Carl, you sit
here,” strategized Elliot as he lowered Carl onto the edge of the bed. Elliot retrieved the chair from the corner of
his room and then another from under the writing desk that formed the room’s
main piece of furniture. “Dani you sit
here between Carl and myself and I’ll sit here.” Elliot seated himself opposite Carl and took
Dani’s hand in his own. “Carl,” he
prompted as Dani offered her hand. Carl
took her hand with a blank expression on his face.

“Right. Carl, what we’re going to do is Dani will put
you into a hypnotic trance. I’m then
going to connect my mind to yours and use Dani’s mind as the battery to power
this little link, which will free up my mind in the dream. Dani will maintain the trance for both of us,
but you have to open your mind. I can’t
force my way into your dreams while you’re under Dani’s trance, so you have to
relax, okay?”

“Okay,”
Carl agreed.

“Okay,”
echoed Dani. “Just relax Carl. I want you to close your eyes and think of a
candle. Just one candle lighting a
small, empty room. Concentrate on the
candle and on the sound of my voice.
That candle is your waking mind and it’s starting to go out. Very slowly now Carl, I want you to empty
yourself of everything but the image of the candle. I’m going to count to ten now and when I get
to ten, the candle will go out and you will be asleep until I light the candle
for you once more. One.”

Carl
had not moved a muscle since Dani had first spoken. Elliot had used his power to plant an image
of a candle in Carl’s mind. He had made
sure that he could think of nothing but the candle and Carl had responded well.

Dani
could not merely hypnotise someone without any powers or not that did not wish
to be hypnotised, but Carl had opened himself completely to her. Elliot felt Dani wrap Carl in a physical
shroud of her will, controlling his breathing and making his body respond to
the hypnotism of his mind, using her telekinesis to aid in the hypnotism. As Dani reached the count of ten, Elliot
followed Carl into his dreams.

5

Elliot
slipped into Carl’s dreaming mind, a spectator in a world that did not really
exist. The clarity of the dream had a
hazy mist shrouding the edges of everything Elliot looked at; the half-forgotten
memories that Carl possessed from his childhood.

Elliot
recognised the small boy in the dream as Carl, walking with a woman that Elliot
assumed was his mother. They strolled
together along a tree lined path through a park on a quiet autumn day. Elliot found it strange that the surroundings
in the dream were so active, the branches of the tree gently swaying even
though there was no wind and the leaves falling like rain from the trees.

Ahead
Elliot saw Carl stop walking and begin to stare at another boy playing with his
father. From the look on the young
Carl’s face, a deep emotion was passing through him and reaching out with his
mind. Elliot felt the sense of loss
rippling through the dream.

Carl
and his mother continued walking and towards them walked a man, his head bowed
against a cold wind that suddenly blasted in from nowhere.

Elliot
watched as the man passed without looking at Carl, but could feel his longing
to be recognised by this stranger.

Carl’s
mind leapt forwards carrying Elliot along with it and now through much clearer
vision, Elliot saw Carl as a young man, just finished his basic training and at
the start of his career. An older man
that Elliot learned had been Carl’s instructor stood with the youthful Carl, a
proud look in his eyes. This was someone that Elliot could feel had been close
to Carl in the absence of his father.

The
dream did not linger here, but swiftly jumped again and once more a man
appeared before Carl, but this time Elliot did not need to search the mind he
was in for an identity. The resemblance
alone was enough to tell Elliot that this was Carl’s father. The clarity of the dream was now so vivid
that it seemed like reality, and Elliot quickly realised that the trance-sleep
Carl was in was also much deeper than it had been. Elliot wondered if Dani was doing this or if
this was a side-effect of the mysterious dream.

Carl’s
father of equal height walked forward and with similar shape embraced his son,
Carl smiling and happily returning the warm gesture. Elliot listened as they began to talk.

“I
did it Dad! I found out what
happened!”

“That’s
good son, but there’s more to this story.”

“What
do you mean there’s more?”

“My
chapter in this story was only the beginning and when that chapter closed, this
became your story,” revealed Edward Blain.

“I
don’t understand. How?”

“The
Leóni family are our enemies my son, and just as the father was mine, so the
son is yours.”

“Enemy?”

“You
must leave this place, or else history will repeat itself.”

“I
can’t leave. I have to protect my
friends.”

“Your
friends will survive this with or without you.”

“Are
you sure? Then-”

“Time
is short, I can’t share or stay here any longer.”

“No
Dad! Please don’t go!” Carl begged the
final words.

Elliot
watched as Carl lunged at his father and held onto him. Like a stone thrown into a pond, the gesture
rippled through the dream changed everything.
Elliot looked around himself as the shimmering whiteness of Carl’s
memory faded into darkness. But even as
he watched, that darkness took on a shape of its own and a few moments later,
Elliot recognised where they were. He
stood now only a few steps away from the Blain men as they all appeared in the
corridor outside Leóni’s study.

Carl’s
father slipped from his arms and began walking away, leaving Carl where he
stood.

“Elliot?”

The
telepath sensed now that the dream had reached the ultimate depth, and had
become a lucid illusion for Carl. “Yes,
I am still here.”

“What
do we do?”

“Have
you not dreamed this before?” queried Elliot.

Carl
thought for a moment. “Yes, I think
so. He led me…”

The
two looked off down the dark corridor, but both could clearly see Edward Blain
waiting for them.

Elliot
nodded to Carl and them followed him as they proceeded after Edward.

As
in the previous dream like this, Carl watched as his father walked, continually
looking over his shoulder to make sure that his son followed. Edward led them through the basement of the
house, passing through the wine cellar and into the next room.

As
they moved Elliot felt a strange sensation in his mind. Focusing his thoughts he was stunned by the
fact that there was a third presence in the dream! Quickly he checked the presence for Dani’s
familiar mental signature, but she was not present. Who could this third presence be? The obvious thought was too incredible to
accept, but as no other solution presented itself, Elliot began to wonder just
how impossible it really was.

The
things Elliot had seen through the Dream Carrier had taught him much, and made
him believe in things of both a religious and fantastic nature, so was it
impossible that Carl’s father really was among them?

Focusing
his mind once more, Elliot sensed that this third presence was also creating
the dream now, and that he and Carl were merely being led through it in vivid
clarity. This was not a dream of clarity
handed to Carl, but was now an actual presence of his father himself.

They
walked from the dimly lit wine cellar into a room that smelled of old paper
ledgers and was piled high with dusty books, the clarity of the documents sharp
enough that Elliot could read them as they passed by. Opening the heavy vault–like door on the
other side of the room, Edward stepped to one side and allowed Carl and Elliot
to enter first. Inside Elliot saw a
finished Dream Carrier.

“This
is what I needed to show you,” Edward said as he circled around the machine to
where a sole book laid on a work surface.

Carl
and Elliot followed, opened the book and saw that it was written in Russian. It seemed to contain unreadable paragraphs
with a name connected to each. Carl
looked to his father. “You’ve shown this
to me before, but I still don’t understand, what are you trying to tell
me?”

“The
notes taken by Romonovski were recorded from the original journal, kept by the
Dream Carrier’s real inventor, Hans Bronkoff.”

Carl
and Elliot exchanged looks of astonishment.

“Men
killed for that original, for the
power of the Dream Carrier. Romonovski’s
duplicated it and took years to create his results. But now, Leóni has his own copy, the only, total, copy of all the Dream Carrier notes. But you must leave this place before he
uses the Dream Carrier to fully awaken himself, before he awakens others.
If the someone once more walks
their path of a last life… You must
escape before it’s too late!”

Carl
and Elliot both felt their eyes dragged again to the book before them, but when
they looked up Edward was gone. Elliot
sent a message through Carl and up into Dani’s conscious and a moment later
both men opened their eyes and turned their aghast faces to her.

6

With
Elliot’s help, Carl was for the first time able to remember the vivid dream in
all its detail, but as he looked to Dani ready to tell her everything that
Elliot and he had seen, he noticed the wide-eyed look of shock on her
face. Dani jumped when he spoke her name
and as Elliot moved to comfort her, Carl saw that she was trembling
slightly.

Dani
spoke. “When the trance took hold, a new
spirit came, something else controlling the dream – I could feel it!”

Elliot
exchanged a look with Carl and then revealed to them what he had felt in the
dream. “Edward Blain –Carl’s father– was
with us, although I don’t know how.”

No
one spoke for several moments after this revelation until Dani asked in a
calmer voice than she expected. “Doesn’t
that contradict everything the Dream Carrier has stood for? If a spirit, a ghost if you like, was here
with us, then surely the Dream Carrier showing memories of people’s souls, the
strongest memories of their previous lives can’t be showing the truth?! How can it if people don’t get
reincarnated?”

Elliot
gave his opinion. “Who knows for sure
what happens at the end. During death,
the only way to know what really happens is to unravel the mystery ourselves –
something we are all destined to do. But
what the Dream Carrier and the spirit of Carl’s father both showed us for
certain, is that death is not the
end.”

“But
why hasn’t my father moved on into his next life then? If the Dream Carrier really does work, why
hasn’t he been reincarnated like the others?”

Elliot
shrugged. “Unfinished business? A strong will to remain? Concern for you maybe. There’s no real way for us to know. What we do know though is that he came to you
in your dreams to warn you.” With that,
Elliot recited the dream back to Dani, who listened intently. When the story was told, Elliot concluded, “So
we can take it that our initial feeling that Leóni’s up to something was
right. But what?”

“Does
it really matter?” asked Carl fiercely.
“If my father was sending a warning to me through those dreams then
that’s good enough for me. We need to
put a stop to Leóni, whatever it is he’s planning to do.”

“But
how? Just walk down there and confront
him?” Dani suggested.

Carl
got to his feet but Elliot quickly caught Carl’s arm. “Wait!
Is there anyone you know at your agency that could help us?”

Carl
looked puzzled. “I doubt Leóni is just
going to let us give someone a call.”

“That’s
not what I had in mind. If you focus
your thoughts on one person in particular, I might be able to send that person
a message.”

“No
way!” cried Dani. “You’re not that
powerful.”

“No,
I’m not… But we are.”

“What?!”

“C’mon
Dani, I’ve seen how your mind works and I’ve seen how little those psychic
blast waves affect you! You’re a
proverbial psychic juggernaut!”

Dani
rolled her eyes, but without giving her further opportunity to object, Elliot
took her hand in his and reached his free hand up to press his thumb and
forefinger, either side of Carl’s temple.
Elliot concentrated on the image of a man now formed in Carl’s
mind.

In
a heartbeat, Elliot knew everything about the man that Carl knew. His name was Brian Foley. They were friends and had been working
together for a long time. Elliot knew
where he lived, how old he was, everything about him that Carl knew, and so he
prepared to send out a psychic message to this man, and gave Dani a small
mental nudge to signal he was ready.

Dani
relaxed herself, letting her mind free and her psychic power flow through
her. She sent her mental might into
Elliot through the physical connection held in their hands, channelling her
willpower, forcing his own telepathic powers to grow and stretch outwards. The thought lifted and flew out away, across
the vast ocean and back to the land, flying along the incredible distance, back
to the city where Carl’s friend lived and worked. The thought was seeking out the mind it was
intended for, searching through the millions of others until, at last, one mind
shone out like a beacon, as the one man called Brian Foley.

But
then something quite unexpected happened and both Dani and Elliot were caught
off guard. A psychic blast rippled
through the airwaves and as it hit the two of them, it exploded sending out a
shockwave that powered Elliot’s simple message up a thousand fold. The thought, which had been nothing more than
a series of images showing Leóni’s island, the Dream Carrier and Carl all
wrapped in a feeling of danger, was magnified outwards instead of hitting just
Foley’s mind, the thought detonated like a mental bomb and penetrated the minds
of the thousands of people surrounding him, in a radius that stretched out for
dozens of miles. People stopped what
they were doing, lost their concentration or shook their heads in a physical
gesture of trying to remove the unwanted thought, as the whole city received
Elliot’s warning.

Elliot
himself was knocked backwards by the unexpected power surge and thrown to the
floor, while Dani, for the first time, showed a painful reaction to the psychic
wave, her hands shooting up to grip the sides of her head. Apart from seeing the message Elliot had sent
in his own mind, Carl remained oblivious to the wave.

“What
is it?” Carl demanded as he dropped after Elliot, seizing his arms.

Dani
was the first to recover, mumbling. “Psychic
blast wave,” as she slowly dropped off of her chair onto her backside. Carl moved Elliot onto the bed and then
helped Dani up to a sitting position beside him, waiting for further
explanation.

Dani
looked a little drowsy as she glanced up and said, “We were sending the message
and then one of those psychic blast waves hit us. I don’t know what happ-”

Elliot
sat bolt upright, suddenly alert. “Oh
dear,” he said in exaggerated concern.
“I think that message got out to one or two more people than just your
friend Brian.”

Carl
raised his eyebrows. “How many more
people?”

“Oh,
I’d say most of Washington.”

Dani’s
mouth fell open and Carl’s face held an expression of stone.

“But
that can only be a good thing, right?!
Now someone is bound to come!” Dani said with as much enthusiasm as she
could muster.

At
that moment the door opened and three large men marched in. Carl spun around and Elliot and Dani jumped
to their feet.

“Mr
Leóni orders that you come downstairs right away.”

Carl
looked at each of the three men and then stole a glance at his friends. Both still seemed to be stunned from the
shockwave of the psychic blast, so Carl decided resistance was not the best
course of action. Without their minds to
defend themselves, Dani and Elliot would be easy target victims.

One
of the men turned and walked from the room, Dani, Elliot and Carl filing out
after him, following him away with the remaining two guardsmen behind
them.

7

They
walked down through the house and along the corridor into Leóni’s large
study. As they entered, Leóni rose from
behind his desk and stalked towards them, stopping only a few paces in front
them. Leóni was flushed with anger as he
seethed in a deadly quiet voice, “How dare you.
I gave you sanctuary, I would have looked after you all for the rest of
your lives for helping me construct my Dream Carrier and this is how you
repay me?!”

The
three exchanged puzzled looks before Rain stepped slowly forwards from the side
of the desk.

“Rain,”
continued Leóni, “received the message that you, Green, were trying to
send. The message you did send
calling others here for help!” Then
unable to control his fury any longer Leóni bellowed. “YOU’VE RUINED EVERYTHING!”

Unexpectedly,
Leóni then screamed something in Italian and his three guards all stepped
forwards, grabbing Dani, Elliot and Carl in tight grips. Dani yelped in pain and Elliot almost
collapsed again from the added weight of his guard leaning on him. Carl merely stood still, offering no resistance.

Dani
glared up at Leóni who responded instantly with a command to Rain. “Block her!
Make sure she can’t use any of her powers here!”

Rain
obeyed, subduing the weakened pair with mental restraints, preventing both Dani
and Elliot from using their minds against their captors.

Leóni
paced his study for a moment, as if regaining his composure and attempting to
control his fury.

“The
time has come,” he began, “to make you the offer I have been toying with for
some time now. I’ve no more time for lies
and halve truths. The reason I am so
interested in the Dream Carrier is because, through my whole life I have had
dreams of being in power. With Rain, I
was able to regress into my last life and discovered that I was one of the
greatest men in history! A man that came
close to realising his dream of a
perfect ownership, someone whom tried to cleanse the impure from this world by developing
his own perfect army. I was none other
than Sigfrid Webber!” Leóni seemed to swell with pride as he made this
announcement.

In
his previous incarnation, Webber had passed away but then spiritually followed
his own creation. Controlling his rebirth
as a son to the father of Roberto Leóni Senior, that birth had brought Webber
home to become the son known as Roberto Leóni Junior. No thoughts or memories from his previous
life had emerged, but the same desires instinctually rose naturally in Leóni
Junior’s dreams. Over time, his mind had
warped through obsessed thoughts, to make him the man he grew to become. The plans and strategies that Sigfrid Webber
had had recurred, those as instinctual, familiar yearnings drawn out, bloomed
within the mind of Leóni himself.

Leóni
stood now with a posture that he had not used before, as if everything about
him had been an act up to this point.

“I
needed the Dream Carrier to confirm my suspicions and learn all that I could
about my glorious past life, my assured plans.
I came so very close last time to total world domination. But now, with the Dream Carrier to aid me, I
have reclaimed all of my past memories that matter and this time it will be
different. With the Dream Carrier, I
will be able to identify all the very greatest minds that have ever lived, and
use them in my quest to unite the world as one super race of ultimate
beings!”

“You’re
insane!” Elliot cried out.

Leóni
glared at him, his lip curling with suppressed anger. “Since two of you would still have your uses
in my new world, I will give you each an ultimatum. Mr Green, Miss Le Freau, join me and I will
let you live. It is that simple.”

“Why?”
Dani spat. “So you can use us to help
you with more Dream Carriers?!”

Leóni
smiled. “The choice is yours. Join me or die. And you must be quick for we will soon need
to leave this place if my plans are to come to fruition.” Then Leóni walked to stand in front of
Carl. “But as for you, Mr Blain, you are
of no further value, and I have been wanting to tell you since we first met. The real reason I have a copy of your
father’s death certificate is because my
father treasured the memory he had of killing Edward Blain himself.”

Carl
began to struggle as these words hit him, but Leóni continued. “He was weak and when he tried to steal the
plans for the original Dream Carrier from my father like a petty thief, my
father killed him! Just as I will now
kill you!”

Rain’s
heart dropped into her stomach as she watched her employer slowly reach into
his jacket, a gun appearing in his hand.
Things suddenly seemed to be happening in slow motion as her mind sped
through what was about to happen and everything fell into perspective. This was not an eccentric millionaire and his
games, nor was this something he only half-heartedly believed. For the first time, Rain understood that this
man was no longer on the brink of madness, but had happily leapt into the abyss
of chaos and allowed it to dominate him in his own desires. In the belief that he was the reincarnated
soul of Sigfrid Webber, Leóni was going to try and control, to try and kill, millions of people, and he was
going to start with the man she loved.

Rain
no longer cared if the Dream Carrier was real, she only knew that she would not
let this man hurt Carl. With a desperate
glance at Elliot and then Dani, Rain released her block on them and channelled
all her power onto Leóni.

Seeing
what was happening, Carl launched into an attack, allowing his training to take
over. In a heartbeat he had broken free
and twisted the man with straining arms around to flip him onto the ground,
following up with a quick heavy punch that knocked him unconscious.

In
the second that happened, Dani
telekinetically launched her own captor backwards and then bounced him into
unconscious from the room door frame.

Elliot
forced his will upon the man holding him and the guard stepped back, reaching
into his own holster for his gun to aim at his employer.

Leóni
fired a shot as Rain fought for control of his mind, but her emotions were
overpowering her focus and she lost him as a second shot cracked through the
air and hit her.

Carl
felt his breath leave him as Rain fell backwards and crumpled to the floor and
he threw himself over to her side, lifting her into his arms.

Elliot
with full control of the man that had tried to hold him and was forcing the
man’s hand to aim at Leóni, but the chain of control was too slow as Leóni
dived around the man and ran from his office.

Dani
snatched the body of the guard under Elliot’s control and with a repeat of her telekinesis,
she fired a second impact to the hard doorway.
The three guardsmen were made unconscious to meet Dani’s desire of
safety.

Carl
held Rain in his arms holding her close to him and looking deeply into her eyes
as she panted breathlessly, blood seeping from her wound. Leóni had shot out twice, but only his second
bullet had scored, clipping Rain in her shoulder. Carl knew that the wound was not fatal, but
his concern for her had momentarily blinded him to that fact.

Rain
lifted a hand to his face and whispered, “Don’t let him escape.”

At
Rain’s words Carl was consumed by the need for revenge.

8

In
a flash Carl was up and stealing the gun from the unconscious guard he had
knocked out. He sprinted from the study
screaming for Leóni as he entered into the corridor. Carl could see Leóni just reaching the hall
now, but instead of running from the house and out towards his helicopter,
Leóni carried on running down the corridor.
Carl ran with everything he had until Leóni reached the far end of the
house and stopped to open the door into the cellar, at which point Carl quickly
aimed and fired, his shot ricocheting from the wall just next to Leóni’s
head.

In
the blink of an eye Leóni was gone and down into the cellar.

Carl
could only assume he was running for the Dream Carrier and did not care he was
running into a dead end. Carl was sure he
would be able to confront his fiendish enemy, Leóni. But as Carl entered into the top of the
staircase leading down into the wine cellar, a bullet bounced off the wall
beside him. He crouched low and hurried
on down the stairs as more shots pinged from the walls either side of him. Below in the cellar all was in darkness and
Carl could not tell where Leóni was firing from, but a moment later he was
among the shelves stacked with wine and in a deadly game of hide and seek with
a madman. Carl heard footsteps running
somewhere in the dark cellar and suddenly the lights came on, casting a dimness
into the room and creating long shadows all about it from the shelves. Carl peered around a corner and saw a blur of
movement as Leóni disappeared at the far end of the shelves. Carl hurried after him but lost all sign of
him at the end to the racks. A bottle
exploded above Carl’s head, splattering him with the red wine held within and
forcing Carl to dive for cover passed the edge of the racks at his side. Carl had travelled in a rectangular direction
around several of the racks and was now back at the stairs leading back up to
the ground level. Carl rolled to his
feet and remained crouched in the corner by the stairs, listening for any signs
of movement from Leóni, but everything was still.

9

Back
in the study, Elliot casted a wary look at the men Dani had dealt with and did
not envy them the headaches they would feel when they eventually awoke. The final guard that Carl had dealt with was
beginning to stir, but Elliot quickly pounced on his mind and sent him back
into a deep sleep, leaving them unhindered by Leóni’s men. “We’ve knocked out all the guards, but I
think Carl is going to kill Leóni.” Kneeling
beside Dani, Elliot checked on Rain, but was surprised to see that she was
trying to get to her feet.

“I
think the bullet only clipped her shoulder,” confirmed Dani as she helped her
up, “but you’re right – Carl is really mad.”

Elliot
lent his assistance and Rain was on her feet and heading out of the door.

Rain
explained. “Leóni’s gone mad. When he first regressed and he had only an
idea of who he had been, he seemed in awe.
The things we saw together in his regressions – they were horrific, yet
to him they seemed to be like ecstasy, becoming like a drug to feed his
mind. The images we saw, the pain I
could feel coming from them through his memories, did not seem to affect him,
he only wanted more. After a few more
sessions his excitement began to grow, until finally the Dream Carrier was made
public. He’s been obsessed with it ever
since even though he was never able to use the original. When he started building his own he insisted
all the testing be on him, but the results were never what he expected and we
could never get the machine working properly.
That’s why he needed you to steal the authentic plans for him. But he paid a price for using his clone Dream
Carrier – it’s destroyed his mind and driven him mad!”

“You
think?!” Elliot said sarcastically to them both.

Rain
continued, unconcerned with the comment as she led them at a brisk pace through
the house, following her mental lock on Carl’s mind. As they neared the open door leading to the
cellar Rain fell into a trot and turned sharply at the open door to the basement.

10

Carl
heard the footsteps behind him at the top of the stairs and glanced back up to
see Rain now above him, smiling in relief at seeing him. But her relief was quickly destroyed as a
shot rang out and Carl lurched sideways onto the staircase.

Rain
screamed as more shots rang out and Carl’s body was thrown backwards with each
impact until he laid sprawled at the bottom of the staircase. Rain flew down the stairs, blind to the
danger that Leóni still presented and landed on her knees at Carl’s side.

Elliot
and Dani were only a step behind her as the three rushed into the cellar.

Roberto
Leóni dropped the empty magazine clip from his pistol and smiled to himself as
he reloaded another. His smile spread as
he looked up and saw that the three psychics that had brought him to this
pending ruin were before him, awaiting their execution. Raising his gun slowly, Leóni levelled the
weapon at Rain, kneeling only a few meters away.

Rain
had been close to him, privy to his plans and now her treachery had earned her
the honour of being the first to die.
Slowly, his anticipation growing all the while, Leóni began squeezing
the trigger until with a loud crack his bullet left the chamber and shot
through the air towards Rain’s beautiful face.

11

Detecting
Carl’s potential danger at the foot of the stairs, Rain was focused on
Carl. Suddenly, Rain’s attention was
dragged from Carl as an incredible psychic power exploded behind her and
looking up, she saw a bullet, suspended in the air in front of her.

The
bullet dropped to the ground and Dani stepped to Rain’s side.

Leóni’s
face contorted into a mask of anger. A
second shot was fired and again Dani caught the bullet in the air, leaving
Leóni trembling with fury at being cheated of his moment. He gripped his pistol now in both hands, but
before he could fire again Elliot raised a hand as if gripping the gun
intension himself.

Leóni
froze, his eyes widened with shock as his mind suddenly went blank and the most
powerful telepath in the world took control of him.

Leóni
stood like a statue as Rain took a step forward, glaring at him with a hatred
that could not be translated into words.
Then with a scream of fury she locked eyes with him and sent the full
force of her mind upon him, firing each of the memories of his regression with
her into his mind. Each distorted
session on his Dream Carrier he had tested, each horrific image from his last
life, every tortured memory linked to a shard of pain that he had caused, Rain
now sent upon him in a tidal wave of pain, a shower of mind bullets.

As
each thought hit Leóni’s mind it tore a hole within him, each telepathically
powered memory enhanced by the Dream Carrier and shared by them both, Rain now
fired into him, shredding his mind in an onslaught of everything they had seen,
sending it all at once at him like a battering ram.

The
result was that of a mental machinegun hammering Leóni’s mind and perforating
it to the point of non-existence, until his mind was completely destroyed.

Elliot
lost his hold on Leóni’s mind for there was no mind to control, causing Leóni
as he fell backwards, dead before he hit the floor.

Chapter
Eleven – September 7th 2099,
11:00

1

Elliot,
Dani and even Rain were shocked at how quickly the mentally summoned agent men
had actually arrived, transported in advanced, classified vehicles, and before
any of the three knew what was going on, Carl had been rushed away. Hours afterwards the sun had risen, Elliot,
Dani and a bandaged Rain had been escorted from the island and taken to a
government office for a debriefing.

That
had been nearly three weeks ago.

It
appeared that various agencies were now involved in the Dream Carrier project
from the CIA to the NSA, and a full scale investigation was underway to
discover the truth to the allegation. Both
Elliot and Dani had made statements about the attempts on their kidnaps by the
elusive ‘Black Ops’ division, but also kept secret their involvement with their
Dream Carrier plans acquirement. Guards
and operators had never remembered any memories of that night, which protected
any potentially criminal accusations.

Rain
had been taken away from the other two early on in the interview process,
leaving them to speculate what had happened to her. Neither Dani nor Elliot were allowed to leave
from their debriefing at this time, and instead had been taken to a hotel,
under guard and put under a house arrest.
Their period of incarceration and ignorance as to what was happening had
lasted just under two weeks. After that,
people became a little more open to their questions and they were brought up to
speed with what had been going on.
Again, the Dream Carrier had been declared a fake by government
officials and Leóni’s press interview branded as nothing more than a publicity
hoax. Despite their questions and
abilities, neither Elliot or Dani could learn anything about Carl.

On
the first day of the third week, Rain was brought to the same hotel as Elliot
and Dani, but they had not detected one another as about an hour later, Brian
Foley came to see them. With a simple
invitation, Rain was taken with Agent Foley, then both arrived into the room
with Dani and Elliot.

“Mr
Foley,” greeted Elliot, extending his hand.
Like Dani, Elliot had adjusted to recreation in the hotel’s
convenience.

Agent
Brian Foley resembled Carl, with similar shape, size and a duplicated outfit.

Foley
smiled and took the offered hand. “I’ve
been told about your skills Mr Green and that it was the two of you that caused
that warning message to be put into the minds of the citizens of Washington D.C. Finding out you already know who I am comes
as just another little expectation. I am
happy to meet you at last – both of you.”
Foley shook Dani’s hand also before turning to Rain.

“Miss
Giavo-, err, I mean Rain, thank you for your co-operation to this
point. I’m told that you’ve been most
helpful and that you’re to receive no charges for your involvement with Leóni
or his death. But we’ll get to
that.”

Grouping
with the others Brian sat down with them at a small, clear dining table, then activated
his screen codes access, displaying copies to each of them through table
clearance.

“We’ll
need you to sign these. They’re documents
forbidding you to disclose any information about the recent events.”

“Things
have been put into motion and even as we speak, the networks and the newspapers
are being given the full story –the truth as far as you’re concerned– about
what happened to Mr Leóni and his Dream Carrier. We’re sticking with the story that it was all
a hoax. A money-making scheme based on
fraud that used the message sent out by ‘an anonymous’ telepath as the ultimate
in advertising. The government is also
sticking by its original claims that the Dream Carrier is a fraud, and now
Leóni is just part of that fraud. He and
his Dream Carrier have, err, ‘disappeared’ shall we say, and although this will
be like a treat for the conspiracy theorists, there’s still definitely no proof
–that the public will ever see– that either Dream Carrier ever worked. It just boils down to our word against Leóni’s.”

“I
thought you’d be happy, Rain. This way,
there can be no murder charge unnecessarily brought against you.”

Rain
looked away at the table in front of her.
“It wasn’t murder… It was
justice.”

Foley
cleared his throat.

“What
about the witnesses he used in his press conference?” Elliot enquired
curiously.

“They’ve
signed slightly different versions of the documents you have in front of you,”
replied Foley. “They’ve agreed to admit
to the world that Leóni did nothing more than stage that entire video footage,
and that his two ‘witnesses’ were both paid by him to say what they said.”

“And
you think people will believe this?” Elliot questioned.

“Maybe
not everyone. Maybe not straight
away. But we’ll control everything they
see and hear about from now on, just like before. It’s only a matter of time before people stop
caring. Hell – most people don’t care
now. Doesn’t change their lives,
so why should they?” Foley said sarcastically.

“But
what about those that do care?” cried Dani. “Those that used the Dream Carrier the first time?! And the other operators! What about them?”

Foley
frowned for a moment before answering. “As far as the other operators go, most of
them have been released and are now under contract to be on hand for another
project.”

“‘Another
project’?” Elliot pried.

Foley
curled half his mouth into a vague resemblance of a smile. “Classified.
And don’t try and peek into my head – they knew I’d be talking face to
face with you, so I’ve been told nothing myself at this stage.”

Elliot
grunted. “Oh.”

“And
what about the other people that used the Dream Carrier the first time round? Are you gonna go see all of them with signature
requirements or with documents and a pen?”

Foley
looked at Dani and she was sure she saw a genuine smile flash briefly across
his face. “Nah… That’s what these are for. If you turn to page six and read what’s
written there please.”

The
three exchanged glances and then did as asked.
Several minutes passed in silence before Elliot was the first to
speak. “You’re offering us jobs?!”

“The
Central Intelligence Agency thinks it would be a good idea to pass over
various, err, unclosed files that are directly connected to the Dream Carrier
to a specialist team. We thought you
might be interested.”

“Says
here we’d be in a four person team,” noted Dani looking up at Agent Brian.

Before
anyone could respond, Rain’s eyes widened and she rose from the table and ran
to the door.

Carl
stepped through and into her arms in one smooth motion. They held each other tightly and after Rain’s
tears had started, they kissed for the first time in weeks.

“I
thought you were dead! They took you
away and I couldn’t find out anything.”

“I’m
sorry,” said Carl simply, pulling her close to him once again.

“Hey! You’re okay!” stated Dani with a big
smile.

Risen
to Dani’s side, Elliot wrapped an arm around her shoulders and whispered, “I
always knew you were as sharp as a tack.”

Dani
elbowed him in his ribs. “I could sense it.”

Epilogue

The
Dream Carrier Team became active exactly one month after its four members had
all signed their respective contracts.
Carl Blain was to lead the team of three psychics, Dani, Elliot and
Rain, in unravelling various mysteries and closing investigations that had been
created as a result of any open Dream Carrier original cases.

In
all instances of the Dream Carrier’s involvement in an assignment, Carl’s team
would be allocated to deal with that case.
The government could not afford another ‘Leóni’ incident.

The
second Dream Carrier created by Leóni was dismantled and moved together with
the recovered notes, and placed in a top secret location away from the
original. The copy of the plans used for
its completion were destroyed.

No
further Dream Carrier projects are currently sanctioned by any agency or any
affiliate. But, the original Dream
Carrier could be made active and ready for use, should a new project ever be
required or demanded.

Write a Review
Did you enjoy my story? Please let me know what you think by leaving a review! Thanks,
Akumad

Schaelz:
I was intrigued from the second I started reading, and it kept my interest the whole way through. Chelsea has a way with words that will enchant you until the very end. She is very poetic with the way she mixes genres and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The main character is also very relat...

Steve Lang:
I thought this story was imaginative, and well thought out. I also think it was an original piece, and not a rehash of previous scifi stories I've read in the past.Thank you for the effort put into this tale, and I look forward to reading more of your work!

ga1984:
I really enjoyed it! Characters were deep and plot was pretty complex. A bit on the violent side but it doesnt detract from the story. Very dark but situations make sense. Ends kinda abruptly and later chapters will need some editing work. I'm assuming there's more in the works?

Warchief:
The biggest problem with the Harry Potter series is that it's all from his point of view. So we never really get to see or understand events from other peoples perspective. I think that they would be more than a few people that want to know what happened at Hogwarts during that last year.As far a...

CookieMonster911:
The story overall was an adventure that is appealing to any age. The way the characters develop adds a more human characteristic to the novel. The writing style itself is amazing because you can learn every character's thoughts and emotions. The awkward love triangle and jerk moments adds to the ...

John Reed:
Seadrias masterfully captures the impressiveness and complex scope that a science fiction novel should provide while carefully crafting an entire universe that will leave a reader in awe from start to finish. The only flaw I could find is that I wish I could have read more. This book is certainly...

Raymond Keith Moon:
Great story arc. Nice command of the balance of overview and detail. Feels a bit like a multi-player computer game, but provides satisfying explanations for all the apparent magic. Please keep writing!

mrh:
This interesting take on the Harry Potter series fascinated me from line one on. I am in love with this tale and its characters and cannot wait to read the next chapter. I look forward to more soon.When can I expect the next chapter? I am so excited to read it!

tyleroakleyfan:
this was the perfect ending I loved it. thank you so much I enjoy the relationship that Draco and harry have and their children. im glad Vernon learned his lesson. and Dudley as a wizard did not see that coming but it gives him a way to be closer to harry. very good job with this. if you could ch...

Jasmine Chow:
As I read this story, I was reminded some what of Terry Pratchett, especially some descriptions of politics and economics. The sci-fic setting is quite intriguing. Writing style is quite lovely and grew on me slowly. I was also slightly reminded of Mark Twain, especially his book A Connecticut Ya...

Tiffany Thomson:
This story is not something I would normally pick up and read but I'm so glad I did, I wasn't able to put it down and my husband was yelling at me at 3am to put it down and go to bed (just waited for him to doze back off before picking it back up) I really hope Natalie brings out another book eit...